Frailty Assessment in Chronic Kidney Disease
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of a Simple Point of Care Frailty Assessment Tool for Use in Chronic Kidney Disease
IRAS ID
216379
Contact name
Andrew Nixon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Frailty is a syndrome of reduced physical reserve that occurs as a consequence of progressive decline in multiple physiological systems. More specifically, Fried et al defined frailty as a clinical syndrome involving at least three of the following: unintentional weight loss, self-reported exhaustion, weakness, slow walking speed, and low physical activity. Frailty is common in elderly patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is associated with impaired physical performance, disability, poorer quality of life and reduced survival.\n\nUndoubtedly, it is important to recognise frailty in clinical practice so that targeted interventions may be offered. Various scoring tools have been used to measure frailty. The Fried frailty criteria have been extensively used in CKD. The Fried Frailty Criteria is predictive of falls, mortality and institutionalisation in end-stage renal disease. Unfortunately, the Fried Frailty Criteria is quite cumbersome for everyday clinical practice. \n\nThe Clinical Frailty Scale is a brief tool that can be easily used in clinical practice. It relies on the clinician’s judgement based on descriptions for levels of frailty. It has good construct validity and evidence of interrater reliability in a community dwelling elderly population. Although, it predicts mortality in end-stage renal disease patients on haemodialysis, it has not been extensively validated in the CKD population. We wish to explore the association between the Clinical Frailty Scale and the more extensively used Fried Frailty Criteria in patients with CKD stage 5 (eGFR ≤15).\n
REC name
North West - Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NW/0761
Date of REC Opinion
24 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion