Validation of a multi-sensor-based kiosk for short physical performance battery in older adults attending a falls and balance clinic

• Published in: Annals of geriatric medicine and research 2022-04
• Main Authors: Hernandez, Herb Howard C, Ong, Eng Hui, Heyzer, Louise, Tan, Cai Ning, Ghazali, Faezah, Yang, Daphne Zihui, Jung, Hee-Won, Ismail, Noor Hafizah, Lim, Wee Shiong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2508-4909

The Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) is a well-established functional assessment tool used for the screening and assessment of frailty and sarcopenia. However, the SPPB requires trained staff experienced in conducting the standardized protocol, which may limit its widespread use in clinical settings. The automated SPPB (eSPPB) was developed to address this potential barrier; however, its validity among frail older adults remains to be established. Therefore, this exploratory study examined the construct validity, reliability, and agreement of the eSPPB as compared to manual SPPB (mSPPB) in patients attending a tertiary fall clinic. We studied 37 community-dwelling older adults (mean age=78.5±6.8 years; mean FRAIL score=1.2±1.0; 65% pre-frail) attending a tertiary falls clinic. The participants used the mSPPB and eSPPB simultaneously. We evaluated the convergent validity, discriminatory ability, reliability, and agreement using partial correlation adjusted for age and sex, an SPPB cutoff of ≤8 to denote sarcopenia, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), and Bland-Altman plots, respectively. The eSPPB showed strong correlations with the mSPPB (r=0.933, P