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Primary health care professionals' experiences of using the Tilburg Frailty Indicator : An interview study

Mazya, Amelie LU ; Boström, Anne Marie ; Sandlund, Christina and Ekdahl, Anne Wissendorff LU orcid (2025) In Primary Health Care Research and Development 26.
Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore primary health care professionals' (PHCP) experiences of frailty assessment with the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) with focus on feasibility aspects. Background: Primary health care (PHC) is often the first point of contact for older people and assessment of frailty is therefore often recommended in this setting. There is however a lack of awareness of frailty in PHC. The TFI has been proposed as a suitable instrument for frailty assessment in PHC. It consists of 25 questions, where ten questions aim to identify risk factors for frailty and 15 questions assess physical, psychological, and social frailty. There are no previous studies of feasibility aspects of TFI in PHC. Methods: A qualitative... (More)

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore primary health care professionals' (PHCP) experiences of frailty assessment with the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) with focus on feasibility aspects. Background: Primary health care (PHC) is often the first point of contact for older people and assessment of frailty is therefore often recommended in this setting. There is however a lack of awareness of frailty in PHC. The TFI has been proposed as a suitable instrument for frailty assessment in PHC. It consists of 25 questions, where ten questions aim to identify risk factors for frailty and 15 questions assess physical, psychological, and social frailty. There are no previous studies of feasibility aspects of TFI in PHC. Methods: A qualitative interview study with physicians, nurses, and physiotherapists that had used TFI in face-to-face interviews during a care visit. Interviews were transcribed and the text was thematically analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Findings: Nine interviews were performed. The PHCPs experiences were expressed in one theme: TFI is useful and feasible but requires time and knowledge. TFI was described as easy to use and providing a holistic assessment of the patient. Using the TFI was time-consuming but provided useful information for care planning. In conclusion, the TFI could be a clinically useful tool to assess frailty in PHC. The result indicates a need of educational efforts to increase knowledge about frailty and a need for primary health care to adjust to older people in order to allow care visits to include both assessment and management of frailty.

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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Feasibility, frailty assessment, primary health care
in
Primary Health Care Research and Development
volume
26
article number
e61
publisher
Cambridge University Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:105011140569
  • pmid:40676963
ISSN
1463-4236
DOI
10.1017/S1463423625100297
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.
id
56f75a10-053c-4ca1-ae7e-40caab9a8685
date added to LUP
2025-08-03 06:19:30
date last changed
2025-08-31 08:30:40
@article{56f75a10-053c-4ca1-ae7e-40caab9a8685,
  abstract     = {{<p>Aim: The aim of this study was to explore primary health care professionals' (PHCP) experiences of frailty assessment with the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) with focus on feasibility aspects. Background: Primary health care (PHC) is often the first point of contact for older people and assessment of frailty is therefore often recommended in this setting. There is however a lack of awareness of frailty in PHC. The TFI has been proposed as a suitable instrument for frailty assessment in PHC. It consists of 25 questions, where ten questions aim to identify risk factors for frailty and 15 questions assess physical, psychological, and social frailty. There are no previous studies of feasibility aspects of TFI in PHC. Methods: A qualitative interview study with physicians, nurses, and physiotherapists that had used TFI in face-to-face interviews during a care visit. Interviews were transcribed and the text was thematically analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Findings: Nine interviews were performed. The PHCPs experiences were expressed in one theme: TFI is useful and feasible but requires time and knowledge. TFI was described as easy to use and providing a holistic assessment of the patient. Using the TFI was time-consuming but provided useful information for care planning. In conclusion, the TFI could be a clinically useful tool to assess frailty in PHC. The result indicates a need of educational efforts to increase knowledge about frailty and a need for primary health care to adjust to older people in order to allow care visits to include both assessment and management of frailty.</p>}},
  author       = {{Mazya, Amelie and Boström, Anne Marie and Sandlund, Christina and Ekdahl, Anne Wissendorff}},
  issn         = {{1463-4236}},
  keywords     = {{Feasibility; frailty assessment; primary health care}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{07}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  series       = {{Primary Health Care Research and Development}},
  title        = {{Primary health care professionals' experiences of using the Tilburg Frailty Indicator : An interview study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1463423625100297}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/S1463423625100297}},
  volume       = {{26}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}