Mobility Assessment in Elderly People. Description OF Measuring Instruments for Mobility. A Review

Background: People over 65 are the ones who have higher levels of functional limitations. There are many instruments to measure mobility in this age range that causes a lack of international consensus on what are the most suitable for this purpose. The aim is to analyze and identify which instruments provide greater data reliability and validity in measuring mobility in elderly people. Methods: Systematic review of the instruments used to measure mobility in people over 65 years published between 2001-2013, conducted in PubMed and Science Direct. Results: The 34 items selected instruments were grouped into 4 categories: doubly labeled water (DLW), motion detectors, objective measures of mobility and questionnaires. We identified, 23 are questionnaires, 4 accelerometers, 3 to objective measures of mobility and 2 both pedometers as DLW. The other 2 to combined analysis of different instruments. Conclusions: We conclude that assessing objective and subjective data obtains the most accurate measures of mobility. To obtain objective data, objective measures of mobility will be opposed to pedometers and accelerometers, while questionnaires were selected for subjective data due to its ease of use and sociodemographic data that provides. Among these instruments, the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) and Minnesota Leisure Time are the most appropriate instruments to estimate the mobility of the elderly in Spain.