Psychometric Characteristics of the Persian Version of «The Fear of Falling Avoidance Behavior Questionnaire» in Elderly

A history of falls or imbalance may lead to a fear of falling, which may lead to self-imposed avoidance of activity; this avoidance may stimulate a vicious cycle of deconditioning and subsequent falls. The purpose of this study was to determine validity and reliability of the Persian version of «The Fear of Falling Avoidance Behavior Questionnaire» in elderly of Shiraz city. 532 elderly with a mean age of 69.25 ± 6.77 years were selected by stratified sampling method. In order to investigate the construct validity, a confirmatory factor analysis based on structural equation model was used. Comparison between two groups with and without falling was used for differential validity and the relationship between the " The Fear of Falling Avoidance Behavior Questionnaire" and The Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale, Falls Self-Efficacy Scale (FES-I), and Timed Up and Go (TUG) Test were used to determine convergent validity. The reliability of the questionnaire was also obtained by test-retest reliability and internal consistency calculation. Results from this study offer evidence for the reliability and validity of the “The Fear of Falling Avoidance Behavior Questionnaire" in elderly of Shiraz city and support the notion that the “The Fear of Falling Avoidance Behavior Questionnaire" measures avoidance behavior rather than balance confidence, self-efficacy, or fear. Currently, there are no other assessment tools that measure this sequela of balance impairment and falls in a clinically useful and practical manner.