Examination of useful items for the assessment of fall risk in the community-dwelling elderly Japanese population

Demura, Shinichi; Sato, Susumu; Yokoya, Tomohisa; Sato, Toshiro

doi:10.1007/s12199-009-0124-7

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine

Table 6 Selected items in this study

From: Examination of useful items for the assessment of fall risk in the community-dwelling elderly Japanese population

Risk factors	Extracted factors	Sub-factors	Items
Symptoms of falling	Symptoms of falling		In the past year, have you felt like you might fall down? [Felt like falling in the preceding year]
			Have you often stumbled? [Stumble]
			Have you ever been told that you look like you might fall down? [Look like falling (third-party evaluation)]
Physical function	Fundamental function	Muscular strength	Are you strong enough to wring out a wet towel or cloth effectively? [Wringing out a wet towel]^c
		Muscular strength	Can you carry a object weighing about 5 kg? [Carrying (about 5 kg)]
		Lower limb strength	Can you jump about a 30 cm gap? [Jumping about a 30-cm ditch]
		Balancing ability	Can you stand on one foot and put a sock on the other foot? [Standing on one foot to put on a sock]^c
		Balancing ability	Can you stand on one foot about 5 s? [Standing with one foot (about 5 s)]
		Walking ability	Can you walk continuously for about 1 km? [Walking 1 km]^c
		Walking ability	Do you usually use walking aids such as stick or walker? [Using walking aids]
		Going and down stairs	Can you climb up stairs slowly without a handrail or wall for support? [Climbing up stairs slowly without a handrail or wall]
		Changing and holding posture	Can you stand from a sitting posture (Seiza) with your hands on the floor? [Standing from sitting posture(Seiza) with hands on the floor]
		Upper limb function	Can you button or unbutton a shirt quickly with both hands? [Buttoning or unbuttoning a shirts (quickly with hands)]
	Advanced function	Muscular strength	Can you sit-up about 1–2 times? [Sit-up (1–2 times)]
		Lower limb strength	Can you fold up and down a heavy futon? [Folding up and down a heavy futon (heavy futon)]
		Balancing ability	Can you jump about a 50 cm gap? [Jumping a gap (about 50 cm)]
		Balancing ability	Can you stand on the bus or train without holding onto a hand strap or rail? [Standing on the bus or train (without holding onto a hand strap or rail)]
		Walking ability	Can you balance on one foot with open eyes for 30 s or more? [One foot balance with open eyes (30 s or more)]
		Walking ability	Can you run about 3–5 min? [Running (3–5 min)]
		Going and down stairs	Can you walk about 60 min? [Walking (about 60 min)]
		Changing and holding posture	Can you climb up stairs without a handrail and wall for support? [Climbing up stairs (without handrail and wall)]
		Upper limb function	Can you stand from a sitting posture (Seiza) without using your hands? [Standing from sitting posture (Seiza) without hands)]
		Upper limb function	Can you button or unbutton a shirt with single hand? [Buttoning or unbuttoning a shirt (with single hand)]
	Gait	Gait	Do you feel your length of stride decrease? [Short-stepped gait]
	Gait	Gait	Do you feel your walking speed becoming slower? [Slow-walking speed]
Disease and physical symptoms	Dizziness and blackout		Do you ever feel lightheaded upon standing up? [Lightheadedness upon standing up]^c
	Dizziness and blackout		Do you ever feel dizzy upon standing up? [Feel dizzy upon standing up]
	Medication		Are you taking any medications, daily? [Medication (daily)]^c
	Medication		Have you ever had a circulatory disease? [Circulatory disease]
	Sight/hearing and cognition disorder	Cognition disorder	Do you feel forgetful these days? [Forgetfulness]
		Hearing disorder	Can you hear well (people talking, etc.)? [Hearing disorder]^c
		Seeing disorder	Can you see well (newspaper, people’s faces, etc.)? [Seeing disorder]^c
	Cerebral vascular		Do you ever feel groggy? [Feel groggy]
	Cerebral vascular		Have you ever had a stroke? [Stroke]^c
	Arthritic and bone disease		Do you have an articular disorder (ankle, knee, hip joint)? [Articular disorder]^c
	Arthritic and bone disease		Do you have osteoporosis? [Osteoporosis]
	Circulatory disease		Have you ever had complications from a disease? [Complications from a disease]
	Circulatory disease		Have you ever been diagnosed as having diabetes? [Diabetes]^c
Environment	Surrounding environment		Are there slippery places in your house? [Slippery places]
	Surrounding environment		Are there obstacles that may cause someone to stumble in your house? [Obstacle]
	Clothing		Do you wear sandals or slippers a lot every day? [Sandals or slippers]^c
	Clothing		Do Your shoes fit your feet? [Shoes fit]
Behavior and Character	Inactivity		Do you often sit at home? [Sit at home]
	Inactivity		Do you hardly ever have occasions to go out? [Go out on only rare occasions]
	Risk behavior A^a		Do you have many occasions to go to the toilet at night? [Go to the toilet at night]
	Risk behavior A^a		Do you act cautiously? [Act cautiously]
	Fear of falling		Are you confident about not falling? [Confident about not falling]
	Fear of falling		Do you worry about falling? [Fear of falling]^c
	Risk behavior B^b		Do you often climb up the steep slope? [Climb up steep slope]
	Risk behavior B^b		Do you often rush about? [Rush everywhere]
Fall experience			In the past year, have you slipped or stumbled and then fallen down? [Fall in the preceding year]^c

A comprehensive fall risk level can be obtained by combining symptoms of falling with fall experiments
Items in square parenthesis are the short label of each item
^aThe factors of “Risk behavior A” are represented by going to the toilet at night and acting cautiously
^bThe factors of “Risk behavior B” are represented by climbing up steep slope and rush everywhere
^cItems used in the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology (TMIG) assessment chart

Back to article page

ISSN: 1347-4715

Contact us

General enquiries: info@biomedcentral.com