title: A comparison of mobility assessments in a geriatric day hospital.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the sensitivity of the Elderly Mobility Scale (EMS) to detect improvements in mobility after physiotherapy in comparison with the Barthel Index (BI) and Functional Ambulation Category (FAC) in routine clinical day hospital practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty-three patients who completed a course of physiotherapy were studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  Each was assessed by an independent physiotherapist before and after a programme of physiotherapy, using the EMS, BI and FAC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age was 79 years (SD 7.7). Fifty-three out of 83 (64%) patients were female and 92% were community dwelling. The median number of physiotherapy sessions undergone by each patient was 9 (range 3-51). All three scales detected an improvement in mobility with physiotherapy (p < 0.001). However, using the EMS, 68 out of 82 (83%) patients had a detectable improvement in mobility compared with only 34 out of 80 (42%) using the BI and 28 out of 81 (35%) using the FAC. Using a matched-pairs comparison, the EMS was significantly more likely to detect an improvement in mobility following physiotherapy within the study group than the BI (p < 0.001) or the FAC (p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although all three scales detected improvements in mobility, the EMS detected mobility improvements in a significantly greater number of patients.
authors.affiliation: Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. e.spilg@ntlworld.com
authors.forename: E G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Spilg
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Aitchison
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005081:Exercise Therapy; D005260:Female; D005853:Geriatrics; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008124:Locomotion; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity