Performance of the Short Physical Performance Battery in Identifying the Frailty Phenotype and Predicting Geriatric Syndromes in Community-Dwelling Elderly

The early identification of seniors at high risk of geriatric syndromes is fundamental for targeting interventions to those who most need them. To date, the predictive value of the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) for multifactorial clinical conditions has not been clearly established. Thus, the aim of the present study was to determine whether the SPPB could identify frailty and predict geriatric syndromes in community-dwelling older adults. Participants comprised men and women aged 60 years and older who participated in the Health and Well-being and Aging Survey in Colombia 2015 (n=4125, 57.6% women). A structured interview was administered to obtain socio-demographic data which included age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and urbanicity. The study included the measurement of body mass, grip strength, SPPB, Lawton’s instrumental ADL scale, specific subjective memory complaints (SSMC), frailty phenotype (Fried and FRAIL Scale), and self-reported falls, geriatric syndromes and/or medical conditions. ROC analysis was used to examine the ability of the SPPB test to predict frailty and geriatric syndromes. The cutoff that maximized both sensitivity and specificity for the frailty phenotype was 8 points or below for men and 7 points or below for women. These cutoff values significantly predicted four geriatric syndromes in descending order: mild dementia (♀ ORajus 3.34, and ♂ ORajus 2.79), low grip strength (♀ ORajus 1.98, and ♂ ORajus 2.45), falls (♀ ORajus 1.39, and ♂ ORajus 1.49), and SSMC (♀ ORajus 1.39). In summary, the main finding of the present study was that SPPB score (i.e., ≤ 8 ♀ and ≤ 7 ♀) seems to be a useful measure for identifying the physical frailty phenotype and predicting geriatric syndromes in community-dwelling older adults.