Cross-cultural adaptation and reliability testing of the Tilburg Frailty Indicator for optimizing care of Polish patients with frailty syndrome

• Main Authors: Uchmanowicz I, Jankowska-Polańska B, Łoboz-Rudnicka M, Manulik S, Łoboz-Grudzień K, Gobbens RJJ
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dove Medical Press 2014-06-01
• Series: Clinical Interventions in Aging
• Subjects: frailty; Tilburg Frailty Indicator; internal consistency; validity; reliability
• Online Access: https://www.dovepress.com/cross-cultural-adaptation-and-reliability-testing-of-the-tilburg-frail-peer-reviewed-article-CIA

Izabella Uchmanowicz,1 Beata Jankowska-Polańska,1 Maria Łoboz-Rudnicka,2 Stanislaw Manulik,3 Krystyna Łoboz-Grudzień,1,2 Robbert JJ Gobbens4 1Department of Clinical Nursing, Wroclaw Medical University, 2Department of Cardiology, T Marciniak Memorial Hospital, 3Primary Care Practice, Wroclaw, Poland; 4Research and Development Center Innovations in Care, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdam, the Netherlands Background: Frail older people are at high risk of developing adverse outcomes, such as disability, mortality, hospitalization, and institutionalization. Previous research suggests that the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring frailty. The aim of this study was to adapt and to test the reliability of the Polish version of the TFI. Method: A standard guideline was used for translation and cultural adaptation of the English version of the TFI into Polish. The study included 100 Polish patients (mean age 68.2±6.5 years), among them 42 men and 58 women. Cronbach’s alpha was used for analysis of the internal consistency of the TFI. Results: The mean total TFI score was 6.7±3.1. Forty patients scored ≥5, which corresponded to being frail. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients of the instrument ranged from 0.68 to 0.72 and item-total correlation ranged from 0.12 to 0.52. Conclusion: The TFI is valid and reproducible for assessment of frailty syndrome among a Polish population. The Polish adaptation of the TFI proved a useful and fast tool for assessing frailty. Keywords: internal consistency, validity, older individuals, aging