Citation

Romli MH, Mackenzie L, Lovarini M, Tan MP, Clemson L. J. Eval. Clin. Pract. 2017; 23(3): 662-669.

Affiliation

Faculty of Health Sciences, Discipline of Occupational Therapy, University of Sydney, Lidcombe, NSW, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/jep.12697

PMID

28105771

Abstract

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Falls can be a devastating issue for older people living in the community, including those living in Malaysia. Health professionals and community members have a responsibility to ensure that older people have a safe home environment to reduce the risk of falls. Using a standardised screening tool is beneficial to intervene early with this group. The Home Falls and Accidents Screening Tool (HOME FAST) should be considered for this purpose; however, its use in Malaysia has not been studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the interrater and test-retest reliability of the HOME FAST with multiple professionals in the Malaysian context.

METHODS: A cross-sectional design was used to evaluate interrater reliability where the HOME FAST was used simultaneously in the homes of older people by 2 raters and a prospective design was used to evaluate test-retest reliability with a separate group of older people at different times in their homes. Both studies took place in an urban area of Kuala Lumpur.

RESULTS: Professionals from 9 professional backgrounds participated as raters in this study, and a group of 51 community older people were recruited for the interrater reliability study and another group of 30 for the test-retest reliability study. The overall agreement was moderate for interrater reliability and good for test-retest reliability. The HOME FAST was consistently rated by different professionals, and no bias was found among the multiple raters.

CONCLUSION: The HOME FAST can be used with confidence by a variety of professionals across different settings. The HOME FAST can become a universal tool to screen for home hazards related to falls.

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Language: en

Keywords

aged; falls; health promotion; home hazards; multidisciplinary; psychometric