Reliability of the Falls Efficacy Scale-International and Its Accuracy as a Predictor of Fear of Falling at the Early Stage of Gait Recovery in Inpatients with Orthopedic Diseases

Abstract

[Purpose] To confirm the clinical usefulness of the Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I) for inpatients. [Participants and Methods] The FES-I scores of 84 patients with orthopedic diseases were measured when they regained the ability to walk 10 m, in order to examine the reliability and validity of the scale to predict their conditions when discharged, as well as its accuracy as a predictor of their fear of falling on discharge. [Results] The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) (1,1) for the total FES-I score was as high as 0.83, and it showed weak negative correlations with life space and the health-related QOL. Furthermore, as a factor influencing the fear of falling on discharge, only the FES-I score when gaining the ability to walk 10 m was significantly correlated, and the cut-off to identify such fear was 41. [Conclusion] FES-I at the early stage of gait recovery may also be useful to some extent to predict patients’ conditions when discharged.