Usefulness of the Elderly Mobility Scale for classifying residential placements

Background and purpose: To investigate the factor structure and cut-off scores of the Elderly Mobility Scale for making placement decisions in extended care settings. Subjects: Ninety elderly residents of mean ages ranging from 79.0 to 86.4 years were recruited from homes for the aged (OAH group), and care and attention homes with or without supplemental infirmary care (IS and non-IS groups, respectively). Methods: The Elderly Mobility Scale was administered to all the residents by five trained practising physiotherapists. Results: Factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure, with two items into a bed mobility subscale and the other five items into a functional mobility subscale. Significant differences were found in the residents' Elderly Mobility Scale scores among the OAH, non-IS and IS groups. The accuracy of the three cut-off scores based on the five functional mobility items reached 90% for classifying the residents into different placements. Discussion and conclusion: The findings suggested that Elderly Mobility Scale scores can be better interpreted with the 'bed mobility' and 'functional mobility' subscales. The high accuracy of classification based on the cut-off scores reflects a good item and construct match of the Elderly Mobility Scale. Our findings support the usefulness of the Elderly Mobility Scale for residential placement of elderly people, which can be generalized to residential settings and post-discharge plans similar to those used in this study.