Development of functional fitness test for the elderly - Summary measure of functional fitness

We have defined physical functional capacity to independently perform functional activities in dally life as functional fitness, and developed a functional fitness test consisted of 4 separate functioning tasks. In the present study, we modified this original test to develop a simple field based test for a summary measure of functional fitness, and examined the reliability and validity of the test. The summary test was composed of 4 serial functioning tasks, such as floor stands, 3m-walk, pick-up and put in golf balls, and self care rope work. The summary of functional fitness was measured by time taken for completing a series of tasks as quickly as possible. Subjects were 480 community dwelling volunteers (179 men, 301 women) aged 60 years and over. Significant relationships (r=0. 366, 0.592) between the timed measures in the summary test and age were found in both men and women. Neither skewness nor kurtsis in the distribution of the measure was found in each age group in each sex. Results of the test retest showed that reliability coefficients (r = 0.908, 0.910) was highly significant in both men and women, but that average time in the second trial were significantly improved from the first trial in both sexes.The validity coefficients of the summary measures of functional fitness against the totalscore in the original functional fitness test were significantly high (r=-0.799, -0.857)in both men and women. These results indicate that the simple field based test for a summary measure of functional fitness developed in the present study is a valid and reliable measure of physical functional capacity for rise with elderly people.