| The electronic frailty index (eFI) is a passive digital marker for frailty that quantifies the proportion of age-related health deficits present within a particular older adult. It is based on the theory of deficit accumulation, quantifying vulnerability to internal and external stressors. |
- The eFI comprises > 50 total deficits, constructed from diagnosis codes, vital signs, laboratory measurements, information on smoking history and medications, and functional assessments from Medicare annual wellness visits.
- Values for the eFI range from 0 to 1, with a score > 0.21 often used to indicate frailty.
- Within the Translational Data Warehouse, eFI values are now included for adults 55 years or older with at least 2 outpatient visits in the past 2 years, along with age and sex-specific percentile rankings relative to the population of patients in the Wake Forest electronic health record.
- Two specific variables: EFI_SCORE and EFI_PERCENTILE
(Rockwood and Mitnitski. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2007 Jul;62(7):722-7).