TUG and CFA are two important tools that help clinicians and laypersons alike assess frailty in older adults. Frailty status impacts the type and degree of healthcare, support services and living accommodations, Below are links to each assessment tool and information about how their findings are interpreted.
The TUG assessment (timed up and go) measures global mobility (Click here for a copy of the TUG assessment) It documents the time it takes to get up from sitting in a share, walking ten feet and returning to the chair offers. Here is how the results are assessed*:
Interpretation:
10 seconds or less = normal
Between 10 and 20 seconds = good mobility, can go out alone, mobile without gait aid
Between 20 and 30 seconds = problems, cannot go outside alone, requires gait aid
* A score of 14 seconds has been shown to indicate high risk of falls
The CFS (clinical frailty scale) classifies the stages of frailty based on a number of factors (Click here for a copy of the CFS). One important feature of the CFS is that is correlates the degree of frailty with the degree of dementia:
Scoring frailty in people with dementia
Common symptoms in mild dementia include forgetting the details of a recent event, though still remembering the event itself, repeating the same question/story and social withdrawal.
In moderate dementia, recent memory is very impaired, even though they seemingly can remember their past life events well. They can do personal care with prompting.
In severe dementia, they cannot do personal care without help.
The degree of frailty corresponds to the degree of dementia.