Conclusions The Timed Up- and -Go test measure appears not to be a useful measure of physical functioning for the driving outcomes included here .
The Rapid Pace Walk may be useful in studies of driving ability and exposure .
Background Improving physical functioning may be a future intervention to keep older adults driving safely longer as it can help maintain both physical and cognitive health longer .
This systematic review assesses the evidence on the association between three physical functioning measures : the Short Physical Performance Battery , the Timed Up- and -Go test , and the Rapid Pace Walk with driving outcomes in older adults .
Reliability and sensitivity to change assessed for a summary measure of lower body function: results from the Women's Health and Aging Study.
A summary performance measure comprised of a hierarchical balance task , a 4-meter walk , and five repetitive chair st and s is increasingly being used as a predictor of independent living for older persons . The reliability and sensitivity to change of this summary performance measure have not been investigated , however . Because a measure can be reliable while being unresponsive to change , this study presents information on both the reliability and sensitivity to change for the summary performance measure . This is a 3-year prospect i ve cohort study of 1,002 moderately to severely disabled older women . Short- and long-term reliability was assessed by intraclass correlation coefficients ( ICC ) . Sensitivity to change was assessed by slope differences for three age categories ( 65 - 74 , 75 - 84 , and > or=85 ) over six 6-month follow-up periods . Sensitivity to change was also assessed by summary performance change scores for those who did and did not suffer from one of four medical events [ myocardial infa rct ion ( MI ) , stroke , hip fracture , or congestive heart failure ( CHF ) ] at follow-up . The summary performance measure showed excellent reliability . Intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.88 to 0.92 for measures made 1 week apart . The 6-month average intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.77 ( range 0.72 - 0.79 ) . The summary performance measure was also highly responsive to change . Subjects who suffered an incident MI , stroke , hip fracture , or CHF at follow-up were significantly more likely to have poorer summary performance change scores ( -2.25 ) compared with those who did not have one of these medical events ( -0.24 ) . Additionally , subjects who suffered one of these events improved their summary performance scores in the following assessment period by 0.72 . With increasing utilization of the summary performance measure by research ers and clinicians it is important that the measurement properties of this instrument are known . Our results show that the summary performance measure has excellent reliability and is highly sensitive to change
Conclusions The Timed Up- and -Go test measure appears not to be a useful measure of physical functioning for the driving outcomes included here .
The Rapid Pace Walk may be useful in studies of driving ability and exposure .
Background Improving physical functioning may be a future intervention to keep older adults driving safely longer as it can help maintain both physical and cognitive health longer .
This systematic review assesses the evidence on the association between three physical functioning measures : the Short Physical Performance Battery , the Timed Up- and -Go test , and the Rapid Pace Walk with driving outcomes in older adults .