Criterion validity of the health assessment questionnaire for the national screening program for older adults in Japan: The SONIC study

Abstract

Aim In our previous study, we proposed that the total score of the 12 frailty‐related items in the health assessment questionnaire for the national screening program for older adults could be used as an indicator of frailty. We aim to examine the criterion validity of the 12 frailty‐related items for frailty. Methods The data used in this study were from older Japanese individuals aged 78–81 years (n = 461) who participated in the in‐venue (2019) and mailed questionnaire (2020) surveys of the Septuagenarians, Octogenarians, Nonagenarians Investigation with Centenarians study. A receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the criterion validity of the 12 frailty‐related items for frailty defined based on the Japanese version of the Cardiovascular Health Study criteria. A multivariable logistic regression model was used to examine the independent association of the 12 frailty‐related items with frailty. Results The area under the ROC curve of the scores of the 12 frailty‐related items for frailty was 0.79 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.73–0.85, P < 0.001). The cut‐off value for frailty was 3 and 4 points, and the sensitivity and specificity were 55.9% and 85.8%, respectively. The multivariable logistic regression model showed that four or more scores of the 12 frailty‐related items were significantly associated with frailty (adjusted odds ratio = 7.75, 95% CI = 4.10–14.65, P < 0.001). Conclusions The results of this study suggest that the 12 frailty‐related items in the health assessment questionnaire for older adults may be useful for assessing frailty in community‐dwelling older adults in a simplified manner. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2023; 23: 437–443.

Questionnaire for Medical Checkup of Old‐Old is non‐inferior to the Kihon Checklist in screening frailty among independent older adults aged 75 years and older: The Itabashi Longitudinal Study on Aging

“…[10][11][12] However, testing in people aged ≥75 years, where frailty is more prevalent, has been understudied. 13 The present study showed moderate accuracy (0.796) in identifying frailty in this population, making the QMCOO a potentially effective tool for identifying early frailty in people at risk of requiring long-term care. However, the KCL and QMCOO present a challenge characterized by a high NPV, but low PPV; thus, methods to increase the PPV should be explored.…”

“…The strengths of the present study include its relatively large sample size compared with similar previous studies, [10][11][12][13] the measurement of walking speed and grip strength for the frailty phenotype, and the analysis stratified by sex. According to COSMIN, 23 a sample size of >100 is required for validity testing, showing the importance of our study's findings.…”

“…The QMCOO is a self-reported questionnaire that provides a comprehensive assessment of health status, and its effectiveness in screening frailty in older adults aged ≥65 years has been shown. [10][11][12][13] However, diagnostic criteria for frailty in older adults aged ≥75 years based on the QMCOO have not yet been established.…”

Development of a Preventive Health Screening Procedure Enabling Supportive Service Planning for Home-Dwelling Older Adults (PORI75): Protocol for an Action Research Study

“…Our extensive literature searches did not find any studies reporting preventive comprehensive health screening tools or procedures specifically designed and validated for home-dwelling older adults. Existing age-specific health screening tools are disease or symptom specific (eg, cancer [10], mental disorders [11], frailty [12], cognitive impairment [13], falls [14], and nutritional status [15]) [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] and they primarily focus on community settings [17,[22][23][24][25][26]. As health systems are becoming increasingly digitalized, screening tools should be suitable for structured and cumulative data recording in electronic patient databases, enabling data-driven management practices and the secondary use of social and health data in the future.…”