Tilburg Frailty Indicator

  • Administration time: 5 minutes
  • Relies on self-report only
  • Multidimensional assessment

Physical components

  • 1. “Do you feel physically healthy?”

  • 2. “Have you lost a lot of weight recently without wishing to do so?
    (‘a lot’ is: 6 kg or more during the last 6 months or 3 kg or more during the last month)”

  • 3. “Do you experience problems in your daily life due to:”

Psychological components

  • 4. “Do you have problems with your memory?”

  • 5. “Have you felt down during the last month?”

  • 6. “Have you felt nervous or anxious during the last month?”

  • 7. “Are you able to cope with problems well?”

Social components

  • 8. “Do you live alone?”

  • 9. “Do you sometimes miss having people around you?”

  • 10. “Do you have enough support from other people?”

Key references

  • Gobbens RJ, van Assen MA, Luijkx KG, Wijnen-Sponselee MT, Schols JM. The Tilburg Frailty Indicator: psychometric properties. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2010 Jun;11(5):344-55. doi: 10.1016/j.jamda.2009.11.003. Epub 2010 May 8. PMID: 20511102.
  • Gobbens RJ, van Assen MA, Luijkx KG, Schols JM. The predictive validity of the Tilburg Frailty Indicator: disability, health care utilization, and quality of life in a population at risk. Gerontologist. 2012 Oct;52(5):619-31. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnr135. Epub 2012 Jan 4. PMID: 22217462.

Alternative tools to Tilburg Frailty Indicator

Frailty Phenotype

Groningen Frailty Indicator

Edmonton Frail Scale

CGA-FI