Reliability and Validity of the Modified Vestibular Disorders Activities of Daily Living Scale in Older Adult Balance Examination
Abstract
•30-60% community dwelling older adults fall each year, which is the leading cause of injury, death, and traumatic hospital admissions in the elderly. This costs the U.S. health care system $20-30 billion per year.2 •Currently used older adult self-report measures demonstrate poor responsiveness, thus failing to detect a decline in function early enough for preventative physical therapy intervention.
•The Vestibular Activities of Daily Living Scale (VADL) is a self-report measure developed to determine activity & participation restrictions in patients with vestibular dysfunction. This scale clearly delineates important tasks and categories of independence, which would be applicable to the assessment of older adult fall risk and functional decline.
•The 10 independence rating categories of the VADL may enable physical therapists to detect functional changes on balance-related tasks and provide interventions to prevent falls and associated injuries in community-dwelling elders.
•Assessing some basic psychometric properties of a modified version of the VADL (m-VADL) to the examination of older adult balance is required before this tool can be used confidently in the clinic.