Assessing frailty in older adults with functional mental illness.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Developing a tool to assess frailty in older adults with a diagnosis of functional mental illness; tool development and pilot testing.
IRAS ID
196557
Contact name
Jennifer Sutton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 2 days
Research summary
Frailty is one of the most complex issues associated with ageing with significant implications for patient outcomes, quality of life and health service utilisation. Evidence suggests that older adults with a functional mental illness such as depression or anxiety are at an increased risk of becoming frail and often experience the highest levels of frailty. To date no frailty assessment tools have been developed for or validated in this population so as part of this research project a tool is being created to address this gap. It will include of a series of questions about common frailty indicators and basic observational tests of walking speed and balance. It will take approximately 15-20 minutes to complete. Ethical approval is being sought for service user involvement in the tools design and pilot testing. Participants aged ≥65 years with a functional mental health diagnosis who are assessed as potentially being frail according to predefined common frailty demographics will be recruited from South London and The Maudsley Mental Health care of Older Adult clinical services. In the tool development stage participants will attend up to four design meetings to provide ideas and input into the tool's design. In both pilot tests participants will be asked to attend a one off assessment session. In pilot test 1 the tool will be administered by a research worker with a clinical background. Participants will be asked to rephrase some of the questions and provide feedback about the tool via a questionnaire to establish the tools comprehensibility, acceptability and feasibility. In pilot test 2 the tool will be administered by a researcher with a second researcher present scoring the tool separately to allow for inter-rater reliability calculations. A well-established frailty assessment tool will also be administered and participants will again be asked to provide feedback via a questionnaire.
REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/1506
Date of REC Opinion
12 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion