THE DIAGNOSTIC PERFORMANCE OF MODIFIED THAI-FALL RISK ASSESSMENT TEST AMONG ELDERLY IN MUEANG LAMPANG DISTRICT, LAMPANG PROVINCE
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: In the past decades, there were many fall risk assessment tools that had been developed, and one of them is the Lampang modified Thai-Fall Risk Assessment Test among the Elderly (Lampang modified-ThaiFRAT).
OBJECTIVE: This research aimed to investigate the diagnostic performance of Lampang modified-ThaiFRAT.
METHODS: The study population was the elderly who live in Mueang Lampang District and was involved in screening for fall risk according to Lampang health policy between October and December 2020. We Collected and analyzed data from electronic medical records to investigate the diagnostic performance of Lampang modified-ThaiFRAT, including sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and AUC-ROC.
RESULTS: The total participants were 1,602. The mean age was 73.43 years, with the majority of them being 73.00% female. The incidence of falling was 8.43%. There was a statistically significant difference in mean age and the total score of Lampang modified-ThaiFRAT between the sample elderly group with fallen and the group without falls, while, there was not statistically different in sex, vision, balance, underlying disease, past history of falls, drug use, and living environment. Lampang modified-ThaiFRAT had 28.89% sensitivity, 74.64% specificity, 9.48% PPV, and 91.94% NPV, and the AUC-ROC was 0.51.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Due to its sensitivity and performance, Lampang modified-ThaiFRAT should be re-considered for screening the risk of falling among the elderly. Developing a new fall risk assessment tool from evidence-based data is also suggested.
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