Falls screening by Timed Up and Go (TUG)

Abstract

Falls is the leading cause of deaths and physical injuries in Thai elderly. A good screening test should identify the elderly who are high risk of falling in order to plan treatment and prevent falls and serious injuries. Therefore, the measurement should have excellence reliability and validity. The protocol should assess activities related to falls, easily apply, take short-time and has clear evaluation scales. Many studies proposed Timed Up and Go (TUG) for falls screening in elderly. The TUG test was developed from Get Up and Go by changing uncertain of the evaluation scale to time (in second). The test was timed after the subjects stood from the chair, walked with normal speed for 3 meters, turned around and then walked back to sit on the chair. The normal time of TUG have different values.  The cut off score in the elderly are; > 13.5 seconds in community living, >15 seconds during admission in hospitals, > 14 seconds in stroke and > 10 seconds in hip osteoarthritis conditions.