Diagnostic accuracy of the World Health Organization ICOPE screening tool in Brazilian older adults: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES

Evaluate the performance of diagnostic measures (sensitivity and specificity) of the Intrinsic Capacity (IC) construct by domain and by age group.

STUDY

DESIGN

164 elderly individuals were assessed in the 5 domains of IC (cognition, psychological, vitality, locomotion, and sensory) and for Activities of Daily Living (ADL), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), frailty, and urinary incontinence. One-way ANOVA, t-test, or Mann-Whitney test were used for quantitative variables, and chi-square test for qualitative variables. The sensitivity and specificity were evaluated using the ROC curve.

RESULTS

Decline in IC was older, worse ADL, IADL, and mental function, low gait speed, higher depression scores, frailty, and urinary incontinence. The full version and the cognitive, psychological, locomotion, and sensory domains demonstrated moderate performance, while the vitality showed poor performance. The age-stratified analysis indicated that among participants aged 60-69 years, the cognitive, vitality, locomotion, and sensory domains showed poor performance, while the psychological domain demonstrated good performance. In the 70-79-year group, all domains showed moderate performance. In individuals aged ≥ 80-years, the cognitive, psychological, vitality, and locomotion domains demonstrated moderate performance, whereas the sensory domain showed good performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Full IC construct and most domains showed moderate performance, with the exception of vitality (poor performance). When analyzed by domain and age group, performance varied across domains, ranging from poor to moderate, with the sensory domain showing the best results in the oldest group. Furthermore, the intrinsic capacity construct remains a useful screening approach for identifying older adults at risk of frailty.