Psychological and Physical Fall Assessment Tools in Persian Older Adults: A COSMIN Systematic Review

 Fear of falling, balance, and environmental hazards are viewed as significant psychological and physical components in seniors. This systematic review was carried out to review psychometric properties of psychological and physical fall outcome measures in Persian older adults.

 The databases were searched using the COSMIN guideline recommendation search strategy and filters. A systematic search was undertaken utilizing the PubMed, Scopus, Medline, CINAHL, PsychINFO, ProQuest, Cochrane library, Web of Science, Pedro, SID, CIVILICA, Magiran, MEDLIB, IranDoc, and IranMedex, from 1971 to June 2021. A further hand search for grey literature was carried out through Google Scholar to detect papers that were not captured in electronic records.

 Of the initial 1268 studies, 33 studies met the inclusion criteria. Eight psychological and 12 physical assessment tools were validated for Persian older adults. The constructs studied were structural validity, internal consistency, and hypothesis testing that were based on reliable methodology with superb quality. In contrast, content validity was either doubtful or not reported. Neither of the studies that were included examined cross-cultural adaptation and responsiveness. The overall quality of the psychometric properties of each measurement tool has a broad range of inconsistencies (from high to low).

 As psychometric data proved inconsistency and conflict for the majority of studies, only provisional judgments may be established. Psychometric features for assessment instruments are clearly partial or lacking, limiting rationale for use in clinical settings or research until more psychometric information is provided.