Clinical Frailty Scale Classification ToolShort version

A quicker version of the CFS classification tool that asks up to seven questions, using counts of activities and conditions, to place your patient on the Clinical Frailty Scale from 1 to 9.

Completed by: Clinician
Questions: 2 to 7, shown only when needed
Time: About 1–2 minutes

About this tool

This is the short version of the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) classification tool. Instead of asking about each activity and condition one by one, it asks for counts: how many basic and instrumental activities of daily living your patient needs help with, and whether they have 10 or more chronic conditions. Depending on the answers, it asks between two and seven questions.

It follows the same decision tree as the full version and gives a CFS level from 1 (very fit) to 9 (terminally ill).

Interpreting the result

The result is a CFS level from 1 to 9, shown with its pictogram and description. The tool supports, but does not replace, clinical judgement.

Privacy

Answers stay in this browser tab until you close it or choose New assessment. Nothing is sent to a server.

More about the Clinical Frailty Scale (Geriatric Medicine Research website)

References

This reference list is under review.

Rockwood K, Song X, MacKnight C, Bergman H, Hogan DB, McDowell I, Mitnitski A. A global clinical measure of fitness and frailty in elderly people. CMAJ. 2005;173(5):489–495. doi:10.1503/cmaj.050051
Theou O, Pérez-Zepeda MU, van der Valk AM, Searle SD, Howlett SE, Rockwood K. A classification tree to assist with routine scoring of the Clinical Frailty Scale. Age Ageing. 2021;50(4):1406–1411. doi:10.1093/ageing/afab006

How to cite

Please cite the papers behind this tool:

Rockwood K, Song X, MacKnight C, Bergman H, Hogan DB, McDowell I, Mitnitski A. A global clinical measure of fitness and frailty in elderly people. CMAJ. 2005;173(5):489–495. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.050051
Theou O, Pérez-Zepeda MU, van der Valk AM, Searle SD, Howlett SE, Rockwood K. A classification tree to assist with routine scoring of the Clinical Frailty Scale. Age Ageing. 2021;50(4):1406–1411. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afab006

and the tool:

GMR Toolkit. Clinical Frailty Scale Classification Tool (Short version), scoring version 2.0. Geriatric Medicine Research, Dalhousie University. https://gmrtoolkit.ca/tools/cfs-classification-short/. Accessed [date accessed].

Or, for a reference manager, in BibTeX:

@misc{gmrtoolkit-cfs-classification-short,
  author = {{Geriatric Medicine Research}},
  title = {{Clinical Frailty Scale Classification Tool (Short version)}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://gmrtoolkit.ca/tools/cfs-classification-short/}},
  note = {GMR Toolkit, scoring version 2.0. Accessed [date accessed]}
}

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