What instruments have been used to assess the mobility of community-dwelling older adults?

Background: The primary aim of this review was to identify existing instruments that have been used to assess the mobility status of community-dwelling older adults. The secondary aims were to identify instruments that have face validity for measuring across the full mobility spectrum and to summarise and compare their clinimetric properties. Methods: MEDLINE, CINAHL, PEDro, and EMBASE were searched until April 2007. The first stage included searching for papers that reported mobility outcome measures that had been applied to healthy community-dwelling older adults. The second stage identified these outcome measures and the third stage compared clinimetric properties of the instruments that had face validity for measuring across the full mobility spectrum (from bed-bound to high levels of independent mobility). Two independent reviewers extracted data from the included studies. Results: From the 128 included papers, 14 outcome measures were identified, two of which, the Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) and the Elderly Mobility Scale (EMS), measured across the full spectrum of mobility. No clinimetric evidence was found for the LEFS amongst a community-dwelling older population and only evidence of known groups validity was identified for the EMS. Discussion: An outcome measure that has face validity for measuring across the full mobility spectrum and has sufficient clinimetric evidence in a community dwelling population was not identified. Conclusion: This review supports the need for the development of such an instrument.