Critical value determination of time "up and go" test for fall prevention in the elderly

Abstract

Objective To explore the critical value determination of time and go test (TUGT) for fall prevention in the elderly and to evaluate its clinical significance. Methods A total of 1 332 elderly people with physical examination were selected by convenience sampling in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from January to July 2015. They accepted questionnaire survey, physical examination, body composition measurement, blood biochemistry, muscle force examination and other related examinations. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn based on the results of TUGT to determine the critical value of TUGT in the elderly. The Logistic regression was used to analyze the predictive value of TUGT critical value for the risk of falling. Results Finally, 1 317 subjects were included. The scores of TUGT of male and female were (9.93±3.04) s and (10.35±2.87) s respectively. The percentage of falling of male and female were 33.1% and 39.8% respectively. The results of ROC curve showed that the critical value of TUGT for fall prevention in male was 9.94 s with 0.700 [95%CI (0.647-0.754) ] for area under curve (AUC) , 86.7% for sensitivity and 64.9% for specificity. While the critical value of TUGT for fall prevention in female was 11.40 s with 0.676 [95%CI (0.622-0.730) ] for AUC, 73.3% for sensitivity and 78.1% for specificity. Logistic regression analysis revealed the odds ratio (OR) value of fall risk of male and female in the elderly with the result above the critical value of TUGT was 3.72 [95%CI (1.82-7.60) ] and 2.70 [95%CI (1.57-4.64) ] compared with the elderly with the result below the the critical value of TUGT after adjusting confounding factors in ages, body mass index (BMI) , smoking, drinking, exercises and disease history. Conclusions The decline of the level of capacity for action in the elderly can significantly increases the risk of falling. The critical values of TUGT for fall prevention in male and female were 9.94 s and 11.40 s respectively. The critical value of TUGT can provide a reference for fall prevention in the elderly and it is worth to be used widely in clinical application. Key words: Aged; Fall; Time up and go test; Critical value