Validation of the Falls Efficacy Scale-International in fall-prone older persons

摘要

SIR—Fear of falling in community-dwelling older personsn[1, 2] may lead to activity restriction [3]. It can predict futurenfalls [4] and is an important fall-related psychologicalnoutcome [5–9]. The widely used 10-item Falls Efficacy Scalen(FES) [5] does not evaluate the social dimension of fear ofnfalling and refers almost exclusively to very basic activitiesnof daily living, making it insensitive when used in active oldernpersons. To remedy this, a new 16-item Falls Efficacy Scale-nInternational (FES-I) [10] has been developed by the Preventionnof Falls Network Europe (ProFaNE, www.profane.eu.norg), showing excellent psychometric properties in a crossculturalncontext [11]. Furthermore, a seven-item FES-I hasnbeen developed and recommended for use as part of a testnbattery and for screening purposes [12].nThe evaluation of the FES-I has so far been performednin community-dwelling non-clinical samples. To examine thenrelevance of the two FES-I versions for health care settings,nfurther evaluation of the instrument should include fallpronenolder persons.nThe aim of this study was to test the psychometric propertiesnof the Norwegian version of the 16-item FES-I in samplesnof fall-prone older home-dwelling persons recruited from thenhealth care system and to assess if the seven-item FES-I hasnthe same properties as the 16-item FES-I in these samples.