Impact of strength and balance on Functional Gait Assessment performance in older adults.

The study measured associations in healthy older adults and did not test interventions, so it cannot show that improving strength or balance would improve FGA performance. Participants were over 65, free from dementia, Parkinson's or other neurological conditions, and walking without an assistive device, so results may not apply to frailer or neurologically impaired older adults. Eligible participants were younger, more educated, and had lower chronic health burden than people not included, so the sample may not represent the broader older population. Only 46 participants completed the FGA, 40 completed strength testing, and one participant did not complete foam static balance trials. The FGA uses a 0 to 3 scale per task, and ceiling effects on some tasks may have limited detection of relationships with individual tasks. Head-turn tasks were not challenging in this healthy sample, with average scores of 2.8 out of 3 on horizontal head turns and 3 out of 3 on vertical head turns, which may explain why static balance did not correlate with those tasks. The lateral weight-shifting task may involve cognitive resources, and the FGA may not require weight transfers as large as that task, which may explain the lack of association.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The article's publication types include NIH extramural research support.

Do not conclude that a low FGA score proves a knee strength or balance deficit, or that strength and balance training will improve FGA scores or reduce falls. This study showed associations in healthy older adults, and lateral weight-shifting balance was not related to total FGA scores.