Utility of VIG-Frail Index in a ED Short-Stay Unit: Frailty and Mortality Correlation

(1) Background: Frailty assessment allows identification of patients at risk of death, and is a challenge in the emergency department or its support wards. The aim is to study Frail-VIG Index (FI-VIG) ability to discriminate frailty groups of older adults and its correlation with mortality in an short-stay unit; (2) Methods: observational, single-center, prospective study consecutively included patients over 65 years old admitted to the unit between March 1, 2021-April 30, 2021. (3) Results: 302 patients were included (56% women); mean age 82.6±7.7 years; 39.1% of them had functional disability and 16.5% had dementia. Of them, 174 patients (58%) met frailty criteria (FI-VIG ≥0.2; 111 (63.8%) mild frailty (FI-VIG 0.2 - 0.36); 52 (29.9%) moderate frailty (FI-VIG 0.36 - 0.55) and 11 (6.3%) advanced frailty (FI-VIG >0.55). Mortality at one year was analyzed: no frailty (n=16; 12.5%); mild frailty (n=25;22.5%); moderate (n=22;42.3%); advanced (n=7;63.6%), showing significant differences between groups (p