Association of physical performance in the Timed Up and Go test with self-report of falls in hospitalized elderly

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Episodes of falls are associated with decreased mobility and mortality and are more common in the elderly. Timed up and Go (TUG) is one of the key tools for tracking the risk of falling in the elderly. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association of the TUG test for self-report of falls in the last year in hospitalized elderly. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a private hospital in the city of Salvador, Bahia, from August 2013 to January 2014. Individuals of both sexes were included from the 1st to 5th day of hospitalization. The accuracy of the test was calculated by the Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve and analysis of the sensitivity and specificity values. The results were arranged as mean and standard deviation or absolute and percentage values. A value of p <0.05 was considered significant. RESULTS: We included 68 elderly people, mean age 70.4 ± 7.7 years, BMI = 25.66 ± 5.26 kg / m², Charlson index 5.35 ± 1.97 and mean time of hospitalization 2.76 ± 1.71 days. The mean TUG time was 10.02 ± 5.38 seconds. The cutoff point of 9.2 seconds found in the ROC curve was the point of greatest association with self-report of falls with a sensitivity of 67.7% and specificity of 68.2%. CONCLUSION: TUG performance is associated with self-report of falls in the last year in hospitalized elderly.