Validity and Reliability of Falls Screening Mobile Application (FallSA) to Inform Falls Risk among Malaysian Community Dwelling Older Adults

Authors

  • MUHAMMAD IQBAL SHAHARUDIN Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
  • DEVINDER KAUR AJIT SINGH Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
  • SUZANA SHAHAR Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Keywords:

Falls, self-screening, mobile application, older adult

Abstract

Falls is a global health concern due to its many negative consequences in older adults. Early falls screening and prevention is important among older adults. We developed Falls Screening Mobile Application (FallSA) as a self falls screening tool among older adults. FallSA was developed using data of physical performance test, demographic information and questions to inform falls risk from a larger population based longitudinal study on neuroprotective model for healthy longevity among older adults (LRGS TUA). The aim of this study was to determine validity and reliability of FallSA as a self-screening tool to inform falls risk among Malaysian older adults. This cross sectional study was conducted among 91 community dwelling older adults aged 60 years and above. FallSA was validated against Physiological Profile Assessments (PPA), a comprehensive falls risk assessment tool. Participants used FallSA to test their falls risk by repeating the test twice between an hour. Validity and test–retest reliability of FallSA was examined by using Spearman correlation, Kappa, Sensitivity and Specificity, Intra correlation coefficient (ICC), Cronbach alpha and Bland-Altman respectively. Concurrent validity test was significant with moderate correlation rs = 0.518, p < 0.001, moderate agreement K = 0.516, p < 0.001 and acceptable Sensitivity: 80.4% and Specificity: 71.1%. Reliability of FallSA was shown to be good (ICC: 0.948, CI: 0.921-0.966), good internal consistency α = 0.948, p < 0.001 and good agreement indicate by small mean differences and narrow limits of agreement (LoA). The results of this study suggest that FallSA was a valid and reliable tool to inform falls risk among Malaysian older adults. Further prospective studies are required to determine the accuracy of FallSA to correctly classify older adults into fallers and non-faller groups. DOI : http://dx.doi.org./10.17576/JSKM-2018-34

Author Biographies

MUHAMMAD IQBAL SHAHARUDIN, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Physiotherapy Programme, School of Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

DEVINDER KAUR AJIT SINGH, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Physiotherapy Programme, School of Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz, 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

SUZANA SHAHAR, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Community Rehabilitation and Ageing Research CentreUniversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia.

Downloads

Published

2018-06-05

Issue

Vol. 16 (2018): Special Issue (Faculty of Health Science Silver Jubilee 2017)

Section

FSK Silver Jubilee (Abstract)

License

It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors assign copyright to the Penerbit, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, using the form available on the Copyright Assignment Form page. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. In assigning copyright, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia is notified in writing and in advance.

Our journal offers an open access articles, which is under the Creative Common license type : Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA)