Abstract

Background: Reduced lower extremity range of motion (ROM) with aging is related to the frequency of falls in older adults. Therefore, this study developed and assessed a model that considers lower extremity ROM in identifying the frequency of fall in community-dwelling older women.

Methods: Seventy-eight community-dwelling older women (mean age ± SD, 70.4 ± 4.6 years; age range, 65–81 years) were recruited in this study. Nine lower extremity ROMs (hip flexion, hip extension, hip abduction, hip adduction, internal and external hip rotation, knee flexion, ankle dorsiflexion, and ankle plantar flexion) were bilaterally measured. The classification and regression tree methodology was used to develop a model that identifies fall experience for the past 12 months.

Results: Twenty-seven participants reported falling in the past 12 months. The model included left ankle dorsiflexion, left hip flexion, and right hip external rotation ROMs. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of this model was 0.710 (95% confidence interval, 0.596–0.825).

Conclusion: The accuracy of the model that considers lower extremity ROMs is moderate for the fall experience in community-dwelling older women.