Referent Values for Commonly Used Clinical Mobility Tests in Black and White Adults Aged 50-95 Years.
Shamekia Winding, Dong Gun Denny Shin, Casey J Rogers and 6 others
PMID 37037292WHAT IT FOUND
Mobility tests show significant performance declines starting in the 80s for Black and White adults in the Southeastern US.
Use these race and sex-specific reference values to identify fall risk, but note the cohort was highly educated and may perform better than your patients.
Key findings
01Most mobility measures showed significant declines in performance starting in the 9th decade of life (ages 80-89).
02Black participants in this cohort performed better than White participants when compared to standard fall risk cut-offs, likely due to high education levels.
03Men showed steeper declines in less habitual tasks like backward walking and dual-tasking compared to women.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study used a convenience sample of highly educated participants (15+ years of education), which may result in better performance than the general population. The data is cross-sectional, so it shows associations between age and performance, not individual decline over time. There were very few Black participants in the 80-90+ age groups, limiting the reliability of reference values for this demographic. The study only included Black and White participants, so these values cannot be applied to Asian, Hispanic, or other racial groups. Fall history was self-reported and may be inaccurate.
Declared interests
Research support was provided by the U.S. Government (NIH) and non-U.S. Government sources. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these reference values apply to patients with lower education levels or different racial backgrounds. The Black participants in this study performed better than standard fall risk cut-offs, which the authors attribute to high education levels rather than race alone. Applying these values to a less educated or different demographic population may lead to under-identifying fall risk.