Table 2 Operationalization of frailty characteristics in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) [15] and in the Lausanne cohort Lc65+ Study.

Characteristic of frailty

Shrinking

Unintentional weight loss >10 lbs in prior year

Any reported unintentional weight loss in prior year

Weakness

Grip strength: lowest 20% by gender and body mass index

Grip strength: application of CHS gender and body mass index specific cut-off values

Poor endurance, exhaustion

Exhaustion self-report: responds a moderate amount of the time or most of the time to either statement "I felt everything I did was an effort" or "I could not get going" in the last week

Exhaustion self-report: responds much to "Did you have feelings of generalized weakness, weariness, lack of energy in the last four weeks?"

Slowness

Walking time/15 feet: slowest 20% by gender and height

Walking time/20 meters: application of CHS gender and height specific cut-off values

Low activity

Physical activity self-report: lowest 20% Kcals/week expenditure, by gender, estimated from the short version of the Minnesota Leisure Time Activity questionnaire

Physical activity self-report: less than 20 minutes of sport activity once a week and less than 30 cumulated minutes walk per day 3 times a week and avoidance of stairs climbing or light loads carrying in daily activities

Classification of frailty

Non-frail or robust

0 criterion present

0 criterion present

Intermediate, possibly pre-frail

1–2 criteria present

1–2 criteria present

Frail

3–5 criteria present

3–5 criteria present