Senior Health Calculator: Online Tool for Providers

For Providers: Online Tool to Calculate Frailty Index (FI)

This online calculator applies the standard deficit-accumulation approach to routinely collected items of a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) to calculate the frailty index (FI). For calculation of FI, medical history and functional status sections must be completed; information on performance tests and nutritional status is not required (the calculator will use all available information).

Interpretation of CGA-FI

The CGA-FI can range from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating a greater degree of frailty. The following categories of frailty are used in clinical practice and research: robust (less than 0.15), pre-frailty (0.15 to less than 0.25), mild frailty (0.25 to less than 0.35), moderate frailty (0.35 to less than 0.45), severe frailty (0.45 to less than 0.55), and advanced frailty (0.55 or higher).

Typically, most of the population has a CGA-FI value less than 0.70. People with a higher CGA-FI value are at greater risk for loss of independence, poor recovery after surgery, and disability after medical hospitalization.

CGA-FI

Final Score: 0.00

MM/DD/YYY

* Items marked with a star (*) must be completely assessed.

Name

RESET ALL

Score : 0

Medical History* (21 items)

Reset

Check any items that the patient has in his/her medical history.

Angina

Anxiety disorder

Arthritis

Asthma

Atrial fibrillation/flutter

Cancer within 5 years

Chronic kidney disease (eGFR<60)

COPD

Coronary artery disease

Degenerative spine disease

Dementia

Depression

Diabetes

Fall within the past year

Heart failure

Hypertension

Myocardial infarction

Peripheral vascular disease

Sensory impairment

Stroke/TIA

Use of >= 5 prescription drugs

Functional Status* (22 items)

Reset

Does the patient need help from another person to perform the following activities?

Activities of Daily Living

Feeding

Dressing/undressing

Grooming

Walking (or use of a walker)

Getting in and out of bed

Toileting

Bathing or shower

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living

Using telephone

Using transportation

Shopping

Preparing own meals

Housework

Taking own medications

Managing money

Nagi & Rosow-Breslau Activities

Pulling or pushing a large object

Stooping, crouching or kneeling

Lifting or carrying 10 lbs

Reaching arms above shoulder

Writing or handling small objects

Walking up/dn a flight of stairs

Walking half a mile

Heavy work around house

Performance Tests (4 items)

Reset

Mental State Examination

5 Repeated Chair Stands

Gait Speed

Dominant Handgrip Strength

Nutritional Status (3 items)

Reset

Weight loss > 10lbs in past year

Body mass index < 21kg/m²

Serum albumin < 3.5 g/L

Number of positive items: Number of items assessed: CGA-FI (range: 0.0-1.0):

* Items marked with a star (*) must be completely assessed.

YOUR HEALTH DASHBOARD

Health Domains	Normal	Low Risk	Moderate Risk	High Risk	Insufficient Data
1. Medical
2. Mobility
3. Muscle Strength
4. ADL disability
5. IADL disability
6. Cognition
7. Nutrition

Your Frailty Index :

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Acknowledgment

Our research team is grateful to Mr. Andrew Song who originally designed and created a prototype of this online calculator; Ms. Sunjin Jung who further improved the design and created the assessment report; and to geriatricians in the BIDMC Division of Gerontology and Min Keun Song, MD, MPH, CMD, for their valuable feedback.

If you have any questions and suggestions about this online calculator, please email Dae Kim, MD, MPH, ScD.

Disclaimer

You are free to reproduce and use the CGA-FI and Calculator, without modification, solely for research or clinical practice under a Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivatives license.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Frailty Index Calculation

Searle SD, Mitnitski A, Gahbauer EA, Gill TM, Rockwood K. A standard procedure for creating a frailty index. BMC Geriatr. 2008; 8: 24. doi: 10.1186/1471-2318-8-24. PMID: 18826625; PMCID: PMC2573877.

Sison SDM, Shi SM, Kim KM, Steinberg N, Jeong S, McCarthy EP, Kim DH. A crosswalk of commonly used frailty scales. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2023 Jun 8. doi: 10.1111/jgs.18453. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37289180.

Frailty Index Implementation in Clinical Practice

Sison SDM, Newmeyer N, Arias KT, Schoenburg R, Fonseca Valencia C, Cheslock M, Raman V, Driver JA, Kim DH. Feasibility of implementing a telephone-based frailty assessment. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2022 12; 70(12):3610-3619. PMID: 36169216; PMCID: PMC9772097.

Frailty Index and Prognosis

Shi SM, McCarthy EP, Mitchell SL, Kim DH. Predicting Mortality and Adverse Outcomes: Comparing the Frailty Index to General Prognostic Indices. J Gen Intern Med. 2020; 35: 1516-1522. doi: 10.1007/s11606-020-05700-w. PMID: 32072368; PMCID: PMC7210351.

Shi SM, Olivieri-Mui B, McCarthy EP, Kim DH. Changes in a Frailty Index and Association with Mortality. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2021 Apr;69(4):1057-1062. doi: 10.1111/jgs.17002. Epub 2020 Dec 29. PMID: 33377190; PMCID: PMC8071066.

Frailty Index and Recovery after Aortic Valve Surgery

Kim DH, Afilalo J, Shi SM, Popma JJ, Khabbaz KR, Laham RJ, Grodstein F, Guibone K, Lux E, Lipsitz LA. Evaluation of Changes in Functional Status in the Year After Aortic Valve Replacement. JAMA Intern Med. 2019; 179: 383-391. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.6738. PMID: 30715097; PMCID: PMC6439710.

Frailty Index and Hospitalization-Associated Disability

Park CM, Kim W, Lee ES, Rhim HC, Cho KH, Kim JH, Kim DH. Comparison of Frailty Index to Pneumonia Severity Measures in Older Patients With Pneumonia. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2022; 23: 165-169. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2021.08.044. PMID: 34624243.