Association between gait speed and the SHARE Frailty Instrument in a Falls and Syncope Clinic

To evaluate the association between SHARE-FI and gait speed in a Falls’ and Syncope Unit. There was a significant negative correlation between frailty and gait speed. After controlling for age, sex, body mass index, co-morbidities and polypharmacy, gait speed was an independent predictor of frailty. SHARE-FI significantly capture gait speed in patients attending a Falls’ and Syncope Unit. Identifying physical frailty is useful in the context of falls and syncope assessment. The phenotype-based SHARE Frailty Instrument for Primary Care (SHARE-FI) does not measure gait speed. We evaluated the association between SHARE-FI and gait speed in a Falls’ and Syncope Unit (FASU). We recruited a pilot sample of patients aged 50 and over attending FASU between November 2019 and March 2020. The association between gait speed and SHARE-FI was assessed with the Spearman’s co-efficient (rs). Logistic regression was conducted to investigate the association controlling for age, sex, body mass index, comorbidities and polypharmacy. 104 participants were included (34 frail) median (IQR) age 74 (68–79) years. 68 were female. There was a significant negative correlation between frailty and gait speed (rs − 0.54, P