F-3-15-07
CONFIDENCE - THE LINCHPIN FOR REHABILITATION OF OLDER CLIENTS
Russell, Fiona C (War Memorial Hospital, Sydney, Australia)
A longitudinal study investigated the physical, social and psychological experiences of older clients following inpatient rehabilitation at War Memorial Hospital, Sydney. The study sought to provide information that would assist in maximising client outcomes for older clients. Data was collected from clients and their carets over a three month period following discharge. Interviews occurred one week prior to discharge, one month after hospital discharge and three months after hospital discharge.
The findings indicated that in contrast to high levels of independence in daily activities and mobility, low levels of confidence affected an older client's participation and re-integration into the community. The research concluded what is needed to ensure success for older clients is a rehabilitation regimen that incorporates the component of confidence. In this way better health outcomes will be achieves for aged people in our community.
F-3-15-08
THE RELIABILITY OF PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE MEASURES FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE
N. Sekiya (Showa University College of Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan)
H. Nagasaki (Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan)
H. Ito (Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences, Ibaraki, Japan)
T. Furuna (Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo, Japan)
A battery of physical performance tests has been shown to be useful for assessing functional status of elderly adults living in community (Nagasaki et al, 1995a, 1995b; Kinugasa, 1996). The purpose of this study was to examine the reproducibility of the battery in elderly people over a long term (2 years). The subjects were 307 elderly adults from the Longitudinal Interdisciplinary Study on Aging by Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology. The physical performance measures included grip strength (GRIP), walking at preferred (P-walk) and maximum (M-walk) speeds, one-step standing with eyes open (O-balance), and finger tapping rate (Tapping). The second measurement was performed two years after the first test. Intraclass correlation coefficients(3,1) for each repeated measures were as follows: Grip strength; 0.89, P-walk; 0.74 (speed), 0.84 (step length), 0.60 (step rate), 0.80 (the ratio of step length divided by step rate; walk ratio), M-walk; 0.82 (speed), 0.86 (step length), 0.68 (step rate), 0.76 (walk ratio), O-balance; 0.69, Tapping; 0.68. These results suggest that the performance battery we used is fairly reliable.
