Several items of the Groningen Fitness Test for the Elderly (GFE) were tested. The GFE tests were administered twice, with 1 week between sessions. The participants were 458 independently living adults >55 years of age. For most tests, there was reasonable agreement between sessions, indicating absolute objectivity and stability, but results on the block-transfer test revealed a learning effect. Mean scores on the balance-board and sit-and-reach tests showed significant improvement, whereas grip-strength results deteriorated significantly. All tests satisfied the criteria for relative reliability. In conclusion, absolute and relative reliability of the tests of the GFE were satisfactory. If multiple applications of the GFE are planned for the same group of participants, 1 or more practice trials should be executed for the block-transfer test to avoid a learning effect. A standard warm-up protocol is recommended for the sit-and-reach test. Participants should be strongly encouraged to give a maximum effort on the strength tests.
Timing walking over 5 m with a return is an acceptable alternative to the 10 m straight walk, but the actual time taken varies. On average, the walk with a turn is 3.2 s longer but in individual patients the difference may be much more or less. Sometimes the walk with a turn is even faster than that without.
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.