Original articleIs Stair Climb Power a Clinically Relevant Measure of Leg Power Impairments in At-Risk Older Adults?
Section snippets
Methods
This study was a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a randomized controlled trial of exercise among mobility-limited older adults.
Results
Participants had a mean age of 75.4 years and were predominately women (69%), predominantly white (85%) (15% black), and overweight, with a mean body mass index of 27.5kg/cm2 (table 1). On average, participants reported 5.6 chronic medical conditions and were prescribed 4.3 medications. Participants had a mean SPPB of 8.7, which has been characterized as mobility limitations of moderate severity.25 Consistent with this, performance measures included the following mean values: gait speed of
Discussion
Our investigation is the first to attempt to formally evaluate the SCPT as a potential measure of lower-extremity power and a predictor of important outcomes of mobility performance. The major finding of our study is that models using the SCPT predict approximately one third of SPPB performance, which is comparable with that predicted by leg power measured using pneumatic isotonic resistance machines. In addressing the 3 components of the SPPB, compared with both DLP40 and DLP70, the SCPT had a
Conclusions
Our study has shown that the associations between the SCPT and the SPPB are sufficiently strong to consider the SCPT a relevant clinical measure of leg muscle power impairments. The true test of the feasibility of the SCPT as an impairment measure would be the evaluation of its use within clinical settings that use mobility performance testing as a means of screening for those at risk for disability. Most clinicians caring for older adults do not have access to lab-based power measures. We
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