RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE MOTOR FITNESS SCALE FOR OLDER ADULTS IN THE COMMUNITY

Responses to 14 items of a questionnaire on motor fitness were collect ed from 990 subjects, all 65 years of age or older, living in a commun ity. The Motor Fitness Scale was created by totalling the score for ea ch item on the questionnaire. A second-order covariance structure anal ysis revealed that the Scale has a unidimensional structure with three subscales, Mobility, Strength, and Balance. The Scale appeared highly reliable with alpha = 0.92 and test-retest = 0.92. The Scale correlat ed with the summary physical performance score (r = 0.59). High discri minant validity, using the age and sex of the subjects, and construct validity, using their health status and level of sports participation, were confirmed for both the Scale and the summary physical performanc e score. The Scale can also discriminate among older persons who are a t the high end of the functional spectrum that determines their level of competence in daily life. The results suggest that the Motor Fitnes s Scale is a feasible substitute for the application of physical perfo rmance measures in assessing the physical function of older adults in the community. (Aging Clin. Exp. Res. 10: 295-302, 1998) (C) 1998, Edi trice Kurtis.