The validity and reliability of kihon checklist in the older Turkish population

Introduction and Purpose: Frailty is an important indicator of long-term care and hospitalization in the older adults. The Kihon Checklist was created in 2016 to identify functionally disable or frail older adults in Japan. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the Kihon Checklist is valid and reliable in older Turkish population. Methods: The study included 300 geriatric patients (mean age 73.85 ± 7.12) who matched the study design with no missing data and were admitted to Dokuz Eylul University Department of Geriatrics between January 2017 and April 2017. The patients were divided into three groups as robust (%25,7), pre-frail (48%) and frail (26.3%) according to the Fried Physical Vulnerability Scale. The Kihon Checklist consisting of 25 yes / no questions was applied to the patients. Results: There were significant differences in terms of age ,gender, education year, Charlson's Comorbidity Index and the number of drugs used (P <0.05). After comprehensive geriatric assesment a significant differences was found between The Mini-Mental State Examination, Clock drawing test, The Clinical Dementia Rating scale, Geriatric Depression Scale, Tinetti-Total, Timed Up and Go test, Barthel Index, The Lawton-Brody Instrumental Daily Living Activity Scale, Mini Nutrition Assesment and Body Mass Index (p <0.05). The Kihon Checklist total score was found to be significant in distinguishing frail patients from others when we took the cut-off point 8/9 (Specificity: 80.52%, Sensitivity: 81%). The Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the Turkish version of the Kihon Checklist was found 0.876.This result showed that the internal consistency of the scale was sufficient. Conclusion: Kihon Checklist is a valid and reliable scale for the Turkish older adults and it can distinguish frail olders with high sensitivity and specificity from others.