Frailty is an important health status indicator in the elderly. The Edmonton Frail Scale, a multidimensional tool validated and culturally adapted into Brazilian Portuguese, may be used for its assessment. A cross-sectional, descriptive study was developed to identify the presence of frailty in the elderly assisted by the Family Health Program in a city in São Paulo, Brazil. All ethical considerations were observed. A sample of 128 older adults was interviewed. There was predominance of female older adults, aged between 60 and 69 years, with low education and personal income. Considering all the older adults who answered all the questions in the scale, 103 had their level of frailty assessed. Of these, 21.4% were apparently vulnerable and 30.1% had some level of frailty, varying among low, moderate and severe. The 25 older adults who failed to answer all questions presented vulnerability to frailty. In conclusion, the scale is suitable for frailty assessment in primary care, as long as it is adjusted to the characteristics of the target population.
Frail elderly; Family health program; Primary health care; Public health
