Reliability and Validity of Korean Version of Falls Efficacy Scale-International (KFES-I).
- Author:
Giburm PARK
1
;
Belong CHO
;
In Soon KWON
;
Byung Joo PARK
;
Taikon KIM
;
Kwang Yeon CHO
;
Un Jin PARK
;
Mi Jung KIM
Author Information
1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Korea. kimmjreh@hanyang.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Elderly;
Falls;
KFES-I;
Validity
- MeSH:
Activities of Daily Living;
Adult;
Aged;
Humans;
Korea;
Public Health;
Surveys and Questionnaires;
Reproducibility of Results
- From:Journal of the Korean Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine
2010;34(5):554-559
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate the Korea version of falls efficacy scale-international (KFES-I) in Korean elderly which was developed to assess fear of falling in older people and have been already validated in some European countries. METHOD: Surveys of 385 older persons from the public health center in Korea based on KFES-I and fall questionnaire such as presence, frequency of fracture within last 6 months, and combined medical illness were taken. KFES-I was composed with 16 items of activities of daily living including social activities and graded from 1 to 4 in each item. Two-week KFES-I re-test data were collected. Reliability and validity estimates were computed as well as KFES-I sum scores according to age, sex, and falls history. RESULTS: Cronbach's alpha was 0.971 and mean inter-item correlation was 0.665. Test-retest Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.960 (p<0.01). As expected, KFES-I scores were associated with age, sex, and falls history (p<0.05). In addition, the KFES-I discriminated between sub-groups somewhat better than the original ten-item KFES scale. CONCLUSION: KFES-I appears to be a reliable and valid method for measuring fear of falling in older adults. This study provides the preliminary evidence that KFES-I is a useful tool in evaluating Korean elderly who fear falling.
