Validity of a Self-administered Questionnaire to Screen Phobia of Falling in the Elderly

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The aim of this study is to determine the validity of a self-questionnaire detecting seniors phobia of falling living at home. A prospective monocentric observational study compares in a blind way the presence of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition (DSM-IV) criteria for specific phobia, considered as the gold standard to the score obtained at the detecting questionnaire for ≥70 years old seniors suspected of phobia of falling and attending geriatric day hospital at the Bretonneau hospital (APHP, Paris).

Detailed Description
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Context : The phobia of falling strongly contributes to the frailty of the elderly, and plays a key role in falls occuring and their deleterious effect. It concerns a big part of seniors living at home, fell before or not, and frequently leads to a restriction of their mobility. When the phobia of falling occurs, the fear of falling down takes an excessive scope, it is associated with anxious reactions when seniors dread the risk, and leads them to avoid these situations reducing their mobility. This reduction of activities contributes to the premature decline of physical capacities, worsens social life, increases the falling and institutionalization risk. However, there is no specific tools for the detection of seniors falling phobia, enabling us to turn patients towards a therapeutic and diagnostical adapted care. A detecting self-questionnaire was thus designed by the research geriatric team after an analysis of the literature and half-directive interviews with a representative sample of the target population. Objectives : The main objective of this study is to evaluate the validity of a self-questionnaire so as to detect falling phobic seniors living at home. The optimal threshold of the questionnaire score, obtained from a receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve), will let us evaluate its concordance compared to the gold standard, formed by DSM-IV criteria for specific phobia. The results of the questionnaire will be kept secret while the study occurs. The secondary objectives will be to control the feasibility of the self-questionnaire detecting phobia of falling, the validity of internal structure and external construction by the exploration of its correlation with other close psychological and physical health measures. Design : A 1 year prospective monocentric observational study is led with seniors attending geriatric day hospital at the Bretonneau hospital (APHP, Paris). While the same day hospital, all eligible patients will have a current evaluation of cares adapted to their admission causes. These patients will fill out the self-questionnaire detecting phobia, designed by the research geriatric team. The final clinical diagnostic of phobia of falling will be disconfirmed or affirmed from DSM-IV-TR (TR stands for text revision) criteria. At the end of the day hospital, an adapted care to their pathologies will be suggested to all the patients, according to usual practice.

Official Title
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Screening for Phobia of Falling in the Elderly: Validity and Feasibility of a Self-administered Questionnaire

Conditions
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Phobic Disorders

Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Aged 70 years and over Presenting walking difficulties and/or disturbance of the balance and/or at least one fall during the course of the last 5 years and/or a fear of falling Living in community Non opposition of the patient to the collection of his personal data Exclusion Criteria: Depression Cognitive disorders Inability to communicate

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 70 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Concordance of the self-questionnaire score compared to the gold standard formed by DSM-IV criteria for specific phobia presence | In a first time, the optimal threshold of the self-questionnaire score will be determined with a ROC curve. In a second time, this threshold will let us evaluate the score concordance compared to reference method. | 1 day | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Percentage of filled out self-questionnaires | Evaluation of construct validity of the self-questionnaire | 1 day | 
| Item response rate | Evaluation of construct validity of the self-questionnaire | 1 day | 
| Help requirement to fill out the self-questionnaire | Evaluation of construct validity of the self-questionnaire | 1 day | 
| Time to complete the self-questionnaire | Evaluation of construct validity of the self-questionnaire | 1 day | 
| Patients' satisfaction with the self-questionnaire | Evaluation of construct validity of the self-questionnaire | 1 day | 
| Life-space mobility assessed by the Life-Space Assessment |  | 1 day | 
| Comorbidity assessed by the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale for Geriatrics |  | 1 day | 
| History of falls, number and gravity |  | 1 day | 
| Frailty assessment according to phenotype definition of Fried | Evaluation of construct validity of the self-questionnaire | 1 day | 
| The Fear Questionnaire |  | 1 day | 
| The Mobility Inventory for Agoraphobia |  | 1 day | 
| Fear of falling assessed by the Falls Efficacy Scale-International |  | 1 day | 
| Self-rated health assessed by the Minimum European Health Module |  | 1 day | 
| The Timed Up and Go, performance-Oriented Mobility Assessment, 10-m walk test, the 30-s chair-stand test |  | 1 day |