Falls and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) prevention in older adults are very important issues in primary care prevention. The risk for both increases in relation with the decline of a person’s physical functions, but whether or not physical function tests can adequately gauge a person’s risk factor for both have not yet been fully examined. This study aims to reveal the differences in physical functions in groups with falls and/or MCI risk factors among community-dwelling older adults. The participants included 153 men and 764 women who attended a care prevention program. They were classified into 4 groups as robust or high-risk for falls and MCI based on Demura’s fall risk assessment (DFRA) and the Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA-J). The physical function tests attempted to assess strength, balance, walk and fall avoidance capacity (hip displacement in the anteroposterior direction (Hip-D)). The results of the physical function tests among the groups were analyzed with two-way ANOVA with age covariate and the Bonferroni correction was used to account for multiple comparisons by gender. Knee extension strength and single-leg standing time showed significant differences in the fall factor for men and in the MCI factor for women. The Hip-D was the only test that was able to clearly show the difference in risk factor for fall and MCI in both genders. Therefore, it was suggested that Hip-D was an effective parameter to detect persons with high risk in both factors.
