The aim of this study was to develop a valid scale for screening the risk for falls, which are caused by functional decline of independent elders. The subjects of this study were those who were able to come to a community center by themselves and to participate in community based functional exercise project. A total of 155 elderly persons (39 male and 116 female) ranging from age 61 to 90 participated and answered questionnaire on instrumental activities of daily living. Six months later, the same subjects answered a questionnaire on falls. As a result of logistic regression analysis with falls in six months as objective variables, six factors were selected as relevant; chronic disease, hospitalization in the past one year, Japanese style toilet, ability to pick up a lying object, squeezing a towel dry, and cooking. A rating scale was constructed to screen the risk for falls. The degree of sensitivity to falls was 70% and that of specificity was 83%, when cut-off values were determined to be 2 points from the evaluation of the ROC curve. Factors found in this study should be relevant and applicable to the development of falls prediction scale for independent elders.

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The present study examined physical and cognitive factors associated with falls. We surveyed the disabled elderly (N = 90, mean age 83.1 years) disabled staying at home. During 1-year prospective monitoring, falls were reported by 22 persons, and near to falls were reported by 36 persons. Their levels of attention were measured with Trail making test-Part A. Falls group (N = 22), Near to Falls group (N = 36) and Non-Falls group (N = 32) were compared with those scores. The result showed that Falls group and Near to Falls group had lower scores of Trail making test than Non-Falls group, and also Falls and Near to Falls groups had lower self-perception of body functions. Falls group had lower scores of foot-gripping force, ankle range of motion, walking speed, compared with the other groups. Logistic regression analysis also indicated that Falls group had less ankle range of motion and foot-gripping force than Non-falls group, and lower Trail making test-Part A scores.
These results suggest that not only physical factors are related to falls, but also attention is an important factor for the elderly disabled.

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The objectives of this study were to evaluate the sex and age-related differences in Timed Up and Go Test scores in community-dwelling elderly people, and to ascertain the usefulness of the Timed Up and Go Test as a measure of community health activities by investigating its relationship to falls, activity, and self-perceived health.
The subjects of this study were 959 community-dwelling elderly people (396 men and 563 women) aged 65 to 95 years (mean, 74.8 years). We evaluated their physical functions via the Timed Up and Go Test, gait speed, grip strength, knee extension strength, and the results of the Functional Reach Test. We also conducted a questionnaire survey, focusing on history of falls in the previous year, frequency of outdoor activity, habitual exercise, hobbies, social activities, and self-perceived health.
The Timed Up and Go Test scores were significantly different between those aged < 70 years and those in each of the higher age groups among men and women. In men, there were no significant differences between other age groups. In women by contrast, there were significant differences for scores between the following age groups: 70-74 years vs. 80-84 years and ≥ 85 years; 75-79 years vs. 80-84 years; and 80-84 years vs. ≥ 85 years. Analysis of the sex-related differences in each age group showed that men achieved significantly shorter times in all age groups.
Our investigation of the relationships between the measured physical function test scores and falls, activity, and self-perceived health demonstrated significant correlations between the Timed Up and Go Test score and history of falls, frequency of outdoor activity, and habitual exercise.
Scores obtained by the Timed Up and Go Test in elderly people differed according to sex and age. The scores on the Timed Up and Go Test were closely associated with important factors related to community health in the elderly; falls, frequency of outdoor activity, and habitual exercise, confirming its usefulness as a measure of physical function in community health.

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Though it is important to know/comprehend the center of gravity position in posture and movement, the center of gravity position, which is actually invisible, is estimated on the basis of experiments in many cases. Since the center of gravity is the center of the weight of each body part, we speculated that the midpoint of the centers of gravity of both upper body and lower body, which can be roughly observed, approximates the center of gravity. In this study, we divided the body into upper body and lower body and defined the midpoint of the centers of gravity calculated from each of the divided body parts as the observational center of gravity. The difference between the observational center of gravity and the center of gravity position obtained from a three dimensional movement analysis system was investigated for posture and movement in the frontal and sagittal planes. The result shows that the center of gravity approximated the midpoint of the centers of gravity of both the upper body and lower body, suggesting their usefulness as clinical observation points.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of health related quality of life (HRQOL), depression, falls efficacy to the effects of exercise intervention on the physical functions in the community-dwelling frail elderly who participated the Comprehensive Geriatric Training (CGT).
Twenty subjects of 65 years and older (4 men, 16 women, the average age was 74.6 ± 7.2) participated in this study. Exercise intervention based on the CGT protocol was performed for three months to these people. Functional performance measures such as walking ability, balance functions and MOS Short-Form 36-Item Health Survey (SF-36), Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Falls Efficacy Scale (FES) were evaluated at the beginning and completion of the intervention. We evaluated the correlation between SF-36, GDS, FES and the improvements of physical functions.
Although there was a relationship between SF-36 (Mental Health) and the change of functional reach, we could not find the relation between GDS and FES and the improvements of physical functions.
It was suggested that there were little relations between SF-36, GDS, FES and the improvements of physical functions in the community-dwelling frail elderly. We thought that an appropriate exercise protocol such as CGT could improve the physical functions without influences of their SF-36, GDS, and FES in the community-dwelling frail elderly.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the exercise intervention for elderly people who had arthralgia due to osteoarthritis of the knee joints.
A total of 36 independent elderly people living in Musashino City, Tokyo, participated in this research. The Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) Score and the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) were used for the evaluation of pain. The activity of daily living (ADL) (evaluated by the physical activity measurement developed by Physical Fitness Research Institute and Meiji Yasuda Life Foundation of Health and Welfare) was used for the evaluation of the physical activity.
Our exercise program was prepared based on the health-pedagogic and behavioral-scientific theories. The changes in each index between one-month observation (no intervention) period (Δ1) and one-month intervention period (Δ2) were compared by a paired t-test.
The participation rate to our program was high (88.3 %). JOA Score improved significantly, but ADL showed no significant differences between Δ1 and Δ2.
The results indicated that our program might be feasible for the arthralgia of knee joint in community-dwelling elderly people.

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