@article{ref1,
title="Development and validation of person-centered cut-points for the figure-of-8-walk test of mobility in community-dwelling older adults",
journal="Journals of gerontology. Series A: Biological sciences and medical sciences",
year="2020",
author="Coyle, Peter C. and Perera, Subashan and Shuman, Valerie and VanSwearingen, Jessie and Brach, Jennifer Sokol",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: The Figure-of-8-Walk test (F8WT) is a performance measure of the motor skill of walking. Unlike walking speed over a straight path, it captures curved path walking, which is essential to real-world activity, but meaningful cut-points have yet to be developed for the F8WT. <br><br>METHODS: A secondary analysis of 421 community-dwelling older adults (mean age 80.7±7.8), who participated in a community-based exercise clinical trial, was performed. Area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCC) were calculated using baseline data, with F8WT performance discriminating different self-reported global mobility and balance dichotomies. Cut-points for the F8WT were chosen to optimize sensitivity and specificity. For validation, F8WT cut-points were applied to post-intervention F8WT data. Participants were called monthly for 12 months after intervention completion to record self-reported incident falls, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations; risks of the outcomes were compared between those who performed well and poorly on the F8WT. <br><br>RESULTS: F8WT performance times of ≤9.09s and ≤9.27s can discriminate those with excellent (sensitivity=0.647; specificity=0.654) and excellent/very good global mobility (sensitivity=0.649; specificity=0.648), respectively. A total number of steps ≤17 on the F8WT can discriminate those with excellent/very good/good global balance (sensitivity=0.646; specificity=0.608). Compared to those who performed poorly, those who performed well had a lower incidence of negative outcomes: F8WT time ≤9.09s = 46-59% lower; F8WT time ≤9.27s = 46-56% lower; F8WT steps ≤17 = 44-50% lower. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians may consider these preliminary cut-points to aid in their clinical decision-making, but further study is needed for definitive recommendations.<br><br>© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1079-5006",
doi="10.1093/gerona/glaa035",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa035"
}