Background

The functional gait assessment (FGA) is a reliable instrument to evaluate walking balance in the Brazilian older population. However, other measurement properties need investigation.

Objective

To determine the construct and criterion validity of the FGA-Brazil and its ceiling and floor effects.

Methods

Sociodemographic, clinical, and anthropometric data were collected from 126 older adults. Participants completed the Mini-mental state examination followed by the FGA-Brazil, Berg balance scale (BBS), gait speed, and the Falls Efficacy Scale-International. Six months later, the participants were interviewed by telephone about their fall history. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the structural validity. We also determined the construct validity of the FGA-Brazil, using hypothesis testing, by investigating the differences between groups using the Mann–Whitney U test. Criterion validity was determined using the Spearman correlation between the FGA-Brazil and the other balance and gait measures, and using the Receiver Operator Characteristic curve.

Results

Participants’ mean age was 69.3 ± 7.4 years, and 84 (69.4%) were female. Factor analysis resulted in two factors explaining 53.3% of the total variance. Moderate and high significant correlations were found between the FGA-Brazil and gait speed (r = 0.65) and BBS (r = 0.80). A significant difference in the FGA-Brazil median score between older adults with low and high concern about falls was observed. The cutoff score recommended for predicting falls was 22 or less. No ceiling and floor effects were observed.

Conclusion

We recommend the FGA-Brazil to determine the risk of falls in community-dwelling older adults.

中文翻译：

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功能步态评估的构建和标准效度——巴西社区老年人

背景

功能步态评估 (FGA) 是评估巴西老年人步行平衡的可靠工具。但是，其他测量属性需要调查。

客观的

确定 FGA-Brazil 及其天花板和地板效应的结构和标准有效性。

方法

从 126 名老年人中收集了社会人口学、临床和人体测量数据。参与者完成了迷你精神状态检查，然后是 FGA-巴西、伯格平衡量表 (BBS)、步态速度和跌倒疗效量表-国际。六个月后，参与者通过电话接受了关于他们跌倒历史的采访。探索性因素分析用于确定结构效度。我们还通过使用 Mann-Whitney U 检验调查组间差异，使用假设检验确定了 FGA-Brazil 的结构有效性。使用 FGA-Brazil 与其他平衡和步态测量之间的 Spearman 相关性以及使用接收者操作员特征曲线来确定标准有效性。

结果

参与者的平均年龄为 69.3 ± 7.4 岁，其中 84 人 (69.4%) 是女性。因子分析的结果是两个因子解释了总方差的 53.3%。在 FGA-Brazil 和步态速度 (r = 0.65) 和 BBS (r = 0.80) 之间发现了中度和高度的显着相关性。观察到对跌倒的高度关注和低关注度的老年人之间的 FGA-巴西中位数得分存在显着差异。推荐用于预测跌倒的截止分数为 22 或更低。没有观察到天花板和地板效应。

结论

我们推荐 FGA-Brazil 来确定社区老年人跌倒的风险。