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Age and Ageing Advance Access published online on June 19, 2008
Age and Ageing, doi:10.1093/ageing/afn129
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Copyright © The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society.

The reliability and predictive accuracy of the falls risk for older people in the community assessment (FROP-Com) tool

Melissa A. Russell1,2, Keith D. Hill1,3, Irene Blackberry1, Lesley M. Day4 and Shyamali C. Dharmage2

1 National Ageing Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, 3052 Australia
2 Centre for Molecular, Environmental, Genetic and Analytic Epidemiology, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010 Australia
3 Faculty of Health Sciences, LaTrobe University and Northern Health, Bundoora, Victoria, 3083 Australia
4 Monash University Accident Research Centre, Monash University, Victoria, 3800 Australia

Address correspondence to: Melissa A. Russell. Tel: 61 3 8387 2200; Fax: 81 3 8387 2153. Email: m.russell{at}nari.unimelb.edu.au

Background: the Falls Risk for Older People in the Community assessment (FROP-Com) tool was designed for use in targeted multi-factorial falls prevention programmes. It fills the gap between the short screening tools and the longer assessment tools, e.g. the physiological profile assessment (PPA). The aim of this study was to determine the reliability and predictive accuracy of the FROP-Com.

Methods: the intra-rater and inter-rater reliability studies were performed with 20 participants each. The prospective study was performed with 344 community-dwelling older people presenting to an emergency department after a fall and being discharged directly home. Following a home-based assessment, including the FROP-Com, Timed Up and Go (TUG) and functional Reach (FR), participants were monitored for falls for 12 months.

Results: the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for intra-rater reliability and inter-rater reliability for the FROP-Com was 0.93 (95% CI 0.84-0.97) and 0.81 (95% CI 0.59-0.92) respectively. The AUC for the FROP-Com was 0.68 (95% CI 0.63-0.74). At the cut-off 18/19, sensitivity was 71.3% (95% CI 64.4-78.3) and specificity was 56.1% (95% CI 48.9-63.4). The AUC for the TUG was 0.63 (95% CI 0.57-0.69) and for the FR was 0.60 (95% CI 0.54-0.66).

Conclusion: the FROP-Com demonstrated good reliability and a moderate capacity to predict falls.

Keywords: accidental falls, aged, geriatric assessment, risk factors, elderly

Received 5 November 2007; accepted in revised form 15 May 2008.


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