A NOVEL TEST BATTERY TO ASSESS THE FUNC

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A NOVEL TEST BATTERY TO ASSESS THE FUNC- TIONAL
CAPACITY IN SENIOR INDIVIDUALS Leone Mario1,
Kalinova Émilia1, Boucher Jean1, Borde-leau
Claude2, Comtois Alain-Steve1 (University of
Quebec in Montreal1, University of Quebec in
Chicoutimi2, Canada) Introduction Maintaining
independence in activities of daily living is a
growing concern amongst elderly. During the
pro-cess of aging, it has often been observed
that the functional capacity is diminished, even
in people having no patholo-gies or handicaps.
This phenomenon can be explained by the
progressive loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia)
which is a consequence of a lower level of
physical activity. Thus, this gradual loss of
muscle force and power, may lead to difficulties
in accomplishing everyday tasks such as walk-ing,
doing groceries, move or lift objects. The
assessment and restitution of functional capacity
is therefore becoming a bigger preoccupation
especially when taking into account the present
demographic situation. Purpose The aim of this
study is to develop a new battery of tests that
mimic situations closely related to daily living
activities while user friendly, cost efficient
and applicable in any setting whether it is home,
gym or clinic and which allows the assessment of
the functional capacity of adults aged 55 years
and older. Methods 12 men and 31 women aged 55
to 79 years old (mean 66.76.8 years) were
first assessed to deter-mine the validity and
reliability of each of the 18 functional tests
that consisted of sit and stand single leg
balance with eyes opened and closed handgrip
strength trunk and shoulder flexibility
lateral, and front and back dominant hand plate
tapping horizontal and vertical dominant arm
circumduction dominant hand horizontal and
vertical tor-sion speed half squat speed ball
balance lower limb flex-ion speed simple
reaction time trunk rotation speed and the 6
minute walk test. In the second part of this
study, 43 men and 119 women aged 55 to 90 years
old (mean 68.5 8.1 years) were assessed in
order to compare gender and age variability.
Results The test-retest procedure indi-cated
that all the tests showed an excellent
reliability with most of the correlation
coefficients (all but one) higher then 0.80. The
absence of a significant difference between the
means of the first and second trial indicated
that the learn-ing process was marginal and did
not affect test perfor-mance scores included in
the battery. At de same chrono-logical age, men
performed significantly better then women in 13
out of 18 functional tests with the exception of
the simple reaction time, the half squat speed
and single leg balance with eyes opened and
closed (no significant dif-ference), while women
performed significantly better then men with
trunk flexibility. When the results are compared
by age, it appears that the performance in each
test dimin-ished with increasing age for both
genders. Conclusion This new test battery
allowed valid and reliable assessment of the
functional capacity of older adults in a
quantitative manner. Each test is easy to
administer for the testers and simple to
understand for the participants, it takes a short
period of time to perform (most of the tests last
less then
60 seconds) and finally, takes few equipment and
space. Keywords Ageing, Performance Diagnosis,
Test-Battery
12thAnnual Congress of the ECSS, 1114 July 2007,
Jyväskylä, Finland I