BioPsychoSocial Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet

Test: Frail Elderly Functional Assessment (FEFA)

Year: 1995

Domain: Biological

Assessment Tool Category: Physical Functioning

Variations/Translations: N/A

Setting: Clinical Setting

Method of Delivery: Interviewed-administered Questionnaire

Description: The Frail Elderly Functional Assessment (FEFA) is a 19-item questionnaire designed to assess function in frail elderly at very low activity levels. The assessment also focuses on areas that impact on caregiver burden. Questions address mobility, dealing with meals, dressing, and bathing, ability to answer the phone or take medications. The questionnaire can be divided into higher functional tasks such as meal preparation or handling finances and psychomotor skills such as dressing and bathing.

Scoring/Interpretation: Participants’ inability to perform more basic functions lead to a higher score indicating a greater functional impairment. The total score is out of 55, lower scores infer better function.

Time to Administer: Approximately 5-10 minutes.

Availability: Appendix of Gloth et al. (1995) article.

Software: N/A

Website: N/A

Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative

Validity (Quantitative): The test was compared with other valid questionnaires such as the Katz’s Activity of Daily Living and the Barthel index. Correlation was excellent, at 0.90, suggesting validity.

Reliability (Quantitative): The test-retest reliability was 0.82.

References:

Gloth, F.M., Walston, J., Meyer, J., & Pearson, J. (1995). Frail elderly functional assessment. American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 74(1), 45-53.

Comments: It is difficult to perform functional assessments on frail elderly. This questionnaire makes it easier to determine the functional level of frail adults.