Screening for Frailty in Elderly Subjects Living at Home : Validation of the Modified Short Emergency Geriatric Assessment (SEGAm) Instrument

"Many tools to evaluate frailty have been developed. However, at the time our study was designed, none of these instruments had been validated in terms of psychometric properties. The aim of this study was to validate the modified version of the Short Emergency Geriatric Assessment (SEGAm) frailty instrument in elderly people living at home. It was an observational, longitudinal, prospective, multicentre study, set up in four departments (Ardennes, Marne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse) in two French regions (Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine). Subjects was aged 65 years or more, living at home, and was able to read and understand French, with a degree of autonomy corresponding to groups 5, or 6 in the AGGIR autonomy evaluation scale. Assessment included demographic characteristics, comprehensive geriatric assessment, and the SEGAm instrument. Psychometric validation was used to study feasibility and acceptability, internal structure validity, reliability, and discriminant validity of the SEGAm instrument. "