Abstract
[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between pull test and falls in the previous year in patients with Parkinson's disease over Hoehn & Yahr Stage three. [Subjects] The participants were 24 patients with Parkinson's disease over Hoehn & Yahr stage 3. [Methods] We investigated the relationship between pull test and falls, and determined the optimal cutoff point for prediction of people at high risk of fall from the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. [Results] The distribution of the pull test was significantly different between fallers and non-fallers. Using a cutoff score of 1, the pull test showed high sensitivity and specificity for identifying fallers (sensitivity: 94.7%, specificity: 60.0%). [Conclusions] We suggest that the pull test with a cutoff score of 1 might be a useful tool for distinguishing people at high risk of fall in the patients with Parkinson's disease over Hoehn & Yahr Stage 3.
