Practicality, validity and sensitivity to change of fear of falling self-report in hospitalised elderly--a comparison of four instruments.

摘要

Sir-The assessment of fear of falling (FOF) has considerably improved over the last decade . Global single-item measures ('Are you afraid of falling?') have been replaced by newer tools that are capable of detecting falls-related self-efficacy, such as the Falls Efficacy Scale (FES) and FES-International (FES-I) or of detecting balance confidence such as the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC-Scale) . The range of activities in these instruments allows for a more detailed view and a better measurement of change .