Appendix A:

Geriatric assessment domains and definitions of impairment

	Tools	Descriptions	Definitions of impairment
Functional status	Activities of Daily Living (ADL)	Assess difficulty with the following 6 activities: bathing, dressing, eating, getting in and out of bed/chairs, walking, toileting (options: yes/no/doesn’t do)	Any deficit (yes)
	Instrumental ADLs	Assess independence in the following 7 activities: using the telephone, transportation, shopping, preparing meals, doing housework, taking medicine, managing money (options: without help, with some help, completely unable to)	Any deficit (with some help or completely unable to)
	Falls history	Assess the number of falls	Any history of falls in the previous year
Physical performance	Short Physical Performance Battery	Assess balance, gait speed, and strength; higher score indicates better performance (range 0–12 points)	≤ 9 points
Comorbidity	OARS Comorbidity	Assess the presence of 13 illnesses (e.g. other cancer or leukemia, arthritis, glaucoma) and how much each problem interferes with his/her activities (options: not at all, somewhat, a great deal)	Patient answered “yes” to 3 illnesses OR answered that 1 illness interferes “a great deal”
	Hearing impairment	Assess hearing impairment by asking “How is your hearing?” (options: excellent, good, fair, poor and totally deaf)	Patients answered “fair”, “poor”, or “totally deaf”
	Vision impairment	Assess visual impairment by asking “How is your eyesight?” (options: excellent, good, fair, poor and totally blind)	Patients answered “fair”, “poor”, or “totally blind”
Cognition	Blessed Orientation-Memory-Concentration	Assess orientation, memory, and concentration using 6 items and scores are weighted; higher score indicates worse performance (range 0–28 points)	≥ 11 points
Nutrition	Weight loss	Assess change in weight over 6 months	> 10% change in weight from 6 months ago
	Sarcopenia	Assess self-reported sarcopenia using the SARC-F questionnaire which includes five components (score of 0–2 for each): strength, assistance walking, rise from a chair, climb stairs, and falls; higher score indicates worse sarcopenia (range 0–10)	≥ 4 points
Social Support	OARS Medical Social Support	Assess the presence of social support using 4 items (“someone to help if you were confined to bed, someone to take you to the doctor if needed, someone to prepare your meals if you were unable to do it yourself, someone to help you with daily chores if you were sick.” options: none of the time, a little of the time, some of the time, most of the time, all of the time)	Patient answers any one of questions as “some of the time, a little of time, none of the time”
Psychological health	Geriatric Depression Scale	Assess depression using 15 items; higher score is worse (range 0–15 points)	≥ 5 points

Abbreviations: ADL, Activity of Daily Living; OARS, Older American Resources and Services;