Self-management of mobility and fall risk might be possible if older adults could use a simple and safe self-test to measure their own mobility, balance, and fall risk at home. The aim of this study was to determine the safety, feasibility, and intraindividual reliability of the maximal step length (MSL), gait speed (GS), and chair test (CT) as potential self-tests for assessing mobility and fall risk. Fifty-six community-dwelling older adults performed MSL, GS, and CT at home once a week during a four-week period, wherein the feasibility, test-retest reliability, coefficients of variation, and linear mixed models with random effects of these three self-tests were determined. Forty-nine subjects (mean age 76.1 years [SD: 4.0], 19 females [42%]) completed the study without adverse effects. Compared with the other self-tests, MSL gave the most often (77.6%) valid measurement results and had the best intraclass correlation coefficients (0.95 [95% confidence interval: 0.91-0.97]). MSL and GS gave no significant training effect, whereas CT did show a significant training effect (p < .01). Community-dwelling older adults can perform MSL safely, correctly, and reliably, and GS safely and reliably. Further research is needed to study the responsiveness and beneficial effects of these self-tests on self-management of mobility and fall risk.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.