Early detection of frailty may prevent or delay adverse health outcomes in community-dwelling older adults. In Portugal, there are currently no valid multidimensional frailty screening tools. SUNFRAIL is a user-friendly multidimensional tool for frailty screening that can be used in primary care. Aims: (i) to determine the validity and reliability of the European Portuguese version of the SUNFRAIL tool for use in community-dwelling older adults; (ii) to assess the screening capacity of this version of SUNFRAIL using Fried’s phenotypic model criteria for frailty as a reference test. Methods: Cross-sectional pilot study in a convenience sample of 128 community-dwelling older adults. Objective and subjective data were collected. Internal consistency, concurrent validity, sensitivity, and specificity (ROC curve analysis) were examined. Results: Internal consistency was low. Significant moderate to strong correlations were found between different domains and the total score. The differences between robust, pre-frail, and frail older adults were significant. SUNFRAIL was also correlated with multimorbidity. Sensitivity and specificity were satisfactory. Conclusions: The European Portuguese version of the SUNFRAIL tool is a promising frailty screening tool for community-dwelling older adults to be routinely used in clinical practice. However, more consistent results on its validity and reliability are needed to be used nationwide.

This work is funded by national funds through FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., within the scope of project Ref. UIDB/00742/2020.

SUNFRAIL,psychometric properties,screening tool,frailty,older adults

• Health Sciences - Medical and Health Sciences
• Psychology - Social Sciences