Table 1.

A comparison of benefits of the Fried frailty phenotype and Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scale for frailty assessment

	Fried frailty phenotype	Rockwood Clinical Frailty Scale
Components	A fixed 5‐point assessment of signs and symptoms experienced by patients to assess physical frailty	Clinical evaluation of multiple patient co‐morbidities and physical and cognitive deficiencies in activities of daily living
Evaluation	Can be performed during routine clinical visit without a comprehensive clinical assessment	Needs thorough evaluation through a comprehensive multi‐domain clinical assessment
Classification	Categorizes phenotype into frail, pre‐frail and non‐frail categories based on a scoring system	Continuous variable covering the complete spectrum of ‘very fit’ to ‘severely frail’ phenotype
Advantages	Quick and easy to perform and interpret Utility in screening of frailty and pre‐frailty status	Assesses clinical, physical and cognitive domains of frailty Utility in temporal assessment of changes in frailty status over time Can be used in assessing frailty in patients that are functionally disabled
Limitations	Only assesses physical domain of frailty Inability to longitudinally track changes in frailty status Limited utility in patients that are functionally disabled	Reported as a continuous variable that can be difficult to interpret for clinicians Requires a comprehensive, holistic assessment of patient's clinical, physical and functional status