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Psychometric Properties of the Falls Efficacy Scale-International, Cut-off Points, and Validating its Short Version Among Iranian Older People

OBJECTIVES: Older people have a fear of falling, which is far more difficult than falling itself. We measured the extent of this feeling using a short and valid Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I) 7-item questionnaire for the aging community in Iran. METHODS: The present psychometric work dea...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Norouzi, Zahra, Ghoochani, Bahareh Zeynalzadeh, Kaveh, Mohammad Hossein, Sokout, Tahereh, Asadollahi, Abdolrahim, Abyad, Abdulrazzak
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: OMJ 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9975788/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36873798
http://dx.doi.org/10.5001/omj.2023.39
Descripción
Sumario:OBJECTIVES: Older people have a fear of falling, which is far more difficult than falling itself. We measured the extent of this feeling using a short and valid Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I) 7-item questionnaire for the aging community in Iran. METHODS: The present psychometric work deals with outlining the validation and translation of FES-I (short version) among 9117 Persian-speaking elderly people with a mean age of 70.2±8.3 years (54.1% female and 45.9% male) in July 2021. Investigations were performed on confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis, internal consistency, and construct validity along with test-retest reliability, receiver operating characteristic analysis, inter-rater, and convergent validity. RESULTS: 72.4% of the subjects were living alone, 92.9% required support in activities of daily living, and 93.0% experienced falling in the past two years. A one-factor solution was assigned by exploratory factor analysis for FES-I. Thus, this model was proved by the confirmatory factor analysis with valid fit indices. Based on Cronbach’s alpha, intra-cluster correlation coefficient, and McDonald’s omega (≥ 0.80), internal consistency was confirmed. The exact cut-off value was represented by the receiver operating characteristic analysis for male/female and between with/without fear of falling among older samples with higher measures of specificity and sensitivity. Moreover, a significant effect of age, aging in place, loneliness, hospitalization rate, frailty, and sense of anxiety (effect size ≥ 0.80, p ≤ 0.05) on fear of falls was detected using analysis of variance. CONCLUSIONS: The psychometric properties of the original scale were preserved by the Persian version of FES-I seven items as a self-reported measure of fear of falling. It could be assuredly a measure in both community and clinical settings. The possible uses and limitations of the Iranian FES-I were also discussed.