Frailty Change Based on Minimally Important Difference in Nursing Home Residents: The SENIOR Cohort Findings

Frailty is very common in nursing homes.1 It can be assessed using a frailty index, which is expressed as the ratio of current deficits to the total number of deficits considered.2 If the ratio is greater than or equal to 0.25 (ie, the lowest quartile), people are considered to be frail.3 However, little is known about how the frailty index changes over time in nursing home residents. To fill this gap in the literature, a recent study estimated the minimally important difference (MID) in frailty in this population and then assessed the change in frailty over 12 months and the factors associated with worsening frailty.