The Usefulness for Parkinson’s Disease Patients of the 10-second Chair Stand Test for the Frail Elderly (Frail CS-10)

Abstract

We investigated whether or not the 10-second chair stand test for the frail elderly (Frail CS-10) is useful for assessing Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. [Subjects] The subjects were 21 PD patients. [Method] We measured the Frail CS-10 and the strength of the quadriceps femoris, which has hitherto been used as a representative index of lower limb strength, and examined their relationships with indices of lower limb function [sway, timed up-and-go test (TUG), 5m maximum walking speed, 10m obstacle course time (10m OCT), and the motor subscore of the functional independence measure (FIM-M)]. [Results] The Frail CS-10 showed significant correlations with TUG, 10m OCT, and FIM-M. However, quadriceps femoris strength did not show a significant correlation with any of the physical functions. [Conclusion] The Frail CS-10 is a simple assessment method for estimating the lower limb function of PD patients, and is better than the quadriceps femoris strength, which has hitherto been used as a representative index of lower limb strength.