Comparison of two frailty screening tools in older women with early breast cancer
Accepted 25 June 2010. published online 21 July 2010. Corrected Proof
Abstract
Introduction and objectives
We have tested two frailty screening tools (the Barber Questionnaire [BQ] and the Vulnerable Elderly Survey [VES-13]) to select patients who may benefit from Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA).
Materials and methods
We included women ≥65 years old, diagnosed with early breast cancer at the University General Hospital in Elche. We compared impairment in the BQ score (score <0 vs. >0) and impairment in the VES-13 score (<3 vs. ≥3), with impaired CGA results (<2 scales with deficits vs. ≥2). We evaluated the diagnostic performance of both questionnaires by Area Under Curve [AUC] and analyzed their concordance with CGA scales (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]).
Results
Forty-one women were included. The risk of frailty was 41.76%, 29.3%, and 55.7% when evaluated with BQ, VES-13 and CGA, respectively. The correlation between BQ and CGA was fair (ICC=0.672), but between VES-13 and CGA was very good (ICC=0.814). The predictive capacity of the BQ and the VES-13 for detecting frailty risk was intermediate (AUC=0.719) and high (AUC=0.876), respectively.
Conclusions
We propose the use of the VES-13 in older women with early breast cancer and the implementation of CGA when VES-13<3.
ABSTRACT
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