Citation

Menezes M, de Mello Meziat-Filho NA, Araújo CS, Lemos T, Ferreira AS. Arch. Gerontol. Geriatr. 2019; 87: e103975.

Affiliation

Postgraduate Program in Rehabilitation Sciences, Augusto Motta University Center, Brazil. Electronic address: arthur_sf@icloud.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.archger.2019.103975

PMID

31739111

Abstract

A large number of fall risk assessment methods are available with a variety of performances for screening the risk of falling in older adults, but their agreement for assessing the risk of falling remains unknown. This observational prospective cohort study describes the agreement and predictive power of methods to classify the risk of falling in older adults using prospective data and published cut-off values. Fifty-two participants aged 74 years (interquartile range 69-80) were assessed using the Berg Balance Scale, polypharmacy, Falls Risk Assessment Score, Fall Risk Assessment Tool, Fall Efficiency Scale, and Posturography. Nine participants (17 %) reported at least one fall after six months. Cochran's test showed different proportions of participants classified as at high risk of falling among all methods (Q = 69.560, p < 0.001). A slightly better-then-chance agreement was estimated between all FRA methods (Light's κ = 0.074, 95%CI [0.021; 0.142]). We found both global and pairwise agreement levels that question the agreement among fall risk assessment methods for screening community-dwelling older adults.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Accidental falls; Aging; Diagnostic screening programs; Health services for the aged; Rehabilitation