Gerontology & Geriatric Research

Abstract

Reliability Evaluation of the Physiological Profile Assessment to Assess Fall Risk in Older People

Sampaio NR, Rosa NMDB, Godoy APS, Pereira DS, Hicks C, Lord SR and Pereira LSM

Background: The Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA) contains five tests: visual contrast sensitivity, hand reaction time, quadriceps strength, lower limb proprioception and postural sway. It has been widely used in research projects and is increasing used in clinical practice. However, reliability statistics for the composite PPA fall risk score for older people has not been previously reported.

Methods: Ten participants (80% female), average age 75.2 (SD=5.17) years participated in the study. The PPA tests were administered by two trained examiners with a time interval of five to seven days for intra-rater reliability assessments and twenty minutes for inter-rater reliability assessments. Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) (2,1) were computed to assess the reliability of the composite PPA and test component measures.

Results: These findings revealed good intra-rater reliability and very good inter-rater reliability for the PPA composite score. With respect to the individual PPA tests, contrast sensitivity and quadriceps strength demonstrated both excellent intra-rater and inter-rater reliability; proprioception demonstrated very good intra-rater reliability and excellent inter-rater reliability; reaction time demonstrated fair intra-rater reliability and good inter-rater reliability; and sway demonstrated fair intra-rater reliability and very good inter-rater reliability.

Conclusions: The study findings indicated the PPA composite score and most component parts had acceptable intra- rater and inter-rater reliability, and thus the PPA can be considered a reliable instrument for the assessment of fall risk in older people.