Citation

Duncan RP, Cavanaugh JT, Earhart GM, Ellis TD, Ford MP, Foreman KB, Leddy AL, Paul SS, Canning CG, Thackeray A, Dibble LE. Parkinsonism Relat. Disord. 2015; 21(8): 960-963.

Affiliation

University of Utah, Department of Physical Therapy, USA. Electronic address: Lee.dibble@hsc.utah.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.parkreldis.2015.05.008

PMID

26003412

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Assessment of fall risk in an individual with Parkinson disease (PD) is a critical yet often time consuming component of patient care. Recently a simple clinical prediction tool based only on fall history in the previous year, freezing of gait in the past month, and gait velocity <1.1 m/s was developed and accurately predicted future falls in a sample of individuals with PD.

METHODS: We sought to externally validate the utility of the tool by administering it to a different cohort of 171 individuals with PD. Falls were monitored prospectively for 6 months following predictor assessment.

RESULTS: The tool accurately discriminated future fallers from non-fallers (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.83; 95% CI 0.76-0.89), comparable to the developmental study.

CONCLUSION: The results validated the utility of the tool for allowing clinicians to quickly and accurately identify an individual's risk of an impending fall.

Language: en