title: Screening for frailty in elderly subjects living at home: validation of the Modified Short Emergency Geriatric Assessment (SEGAm) instrument.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To validate the modified version of the Short Emergency Geriatric Assessment (SEGAm) frailty instrument in elderly people living at home.
  
  
  METHODS
  Longitudinal, prospective, multicentre study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four departments (Ardennes, Marne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse) in two French Regions (Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine).
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects aged 65 years or more, living at home, who could read and understand French, with a degree of autonomy corresponding to groups 5, or 6 in the AGGIR autonomy evaluation scale.
  
  
  METHODS
  Assessment included demographic characteristics, comprehensive geriatric assessment, and the SEGAm instrument. Psychometric validation was used to study feasibility and acceptability, internal structure validity, reliability, and discriminant validity of the SEGAm instrument.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between July 1st 2012 and March 31st 2013, 167 patients were included in the study. Averaged age was 77±7 years, the majority were women (70.7%). Feasibility and acceptability of the SEGAm instrument were excellent: we observed no refusal to participate, no drop-out during administration, no missing items, no ceiling or floor effects, and the administration time was short (5.0±3.5 min). By factor analysis, the instrument proved to be unidimensional. It showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient: 0.68) and good test-retest (intra-class correlation: 0.88) at 7 days interval. Discriminant validity showed a significant difference, mainly for nutritional status, fall risk, dependency, mood and depression risk, and comorbidities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on these psychometric properties, the SEGAm appears to be an easy-to-use instrument that is particularly suitable for use in the community to identify frail elderly people who could benefit from early targeted interventions.
authors.affiliation: Moustapha Dramé MD, MPH, PhD, Department of Research and Innovation, Reims Teaching Hospitals, Robert Debré Hospital, Avenue du Général Koenig - 51092 Reims cedex, France, Telephone: + 33 3 26 78 44 12, Fax: + 33 3 26 83 25 89, E-mail: mdrame@chu-reims.fr.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Oubaya
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mahmoudi
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jolly
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Zulfiqar
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Quignard
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cunin
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nazeyrollas
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Novella
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dramé
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires