OBJECTIVE to investigate the association between frailty with hospitalization and institutionalization in a follow-up study of elderly residents. METHODS the follow-up study was performed in 2008 and 2013 with elderly of both genders, aged 65 years and older who were living in the community-dwelling. The sampling procedure performed was probabilistic, with dual-stage clustering. In 2008, 515 elderly people were interviewed and, in 2013, 262. We used the socioeconomic and demographic data, self-reported morbidity, specific data of hospitalization and institutionalization. Frailty was measured by the Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS), and functional capacity through the Functional Independence Measure. RESULTS we found the mean gross EFS score was higher among resident elderly who were hospitalized and institutionalized and was statistically significant in both investigated years. CONCLUSIONS the confirmation of association between frailty and hospitalization and institutionalization reinforces the importance of the subject, and highlights frailty as an important tool for risk estimates for these adverse events.