Article

Falling is a serious hazard for older veterans that may lead to severe injury,
loss of independence, and death. While the American Geriatrics Society (AGS)
provides guidelines to screen individuals at risk for falls, the guidelines may
be less successful with specific subgroups of patients. In a veteran sample, we
examined whether the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test, including a modified version,
the TUG-Cognition, effectively detected potential fallers whose risk was
associated with cognitive deficits. Specifically, we sought to determine whether
TUG tasks and AGS criteria were differentially associated with executive
dysfunction, whether the TUG tasks identified potential fallers outside of those
recognized by AGS criteria, and whether these tasks distinguished groups of
fallers. Participants included 120 mostly male patients referred to the Memory
Assessment Clinic because of cognitive impairment. TUG-Cognition scores were
strongly associated with executive dysfunction and differed systematically
between fallers grouped by number of falls. These findings suggest that the
TUG-Cognition shows promise in identifying fallers whose risk is related to or
compounded by cognitive impairment. Future research should study the predictive
validity of these measures by following patients prospectively.

Langue : ANGLAIS