İnter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the extended TUG test in elderly participants

• Main Authors: Juan José Bedoya-Belmonte, María del Mar Rodríguez-González, Manuel González-Sánchez, Jose Miguel Barreda Pitarch, Alejandro Galán-Mercant, Antonio I. Cuesta-Vargas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2020-02-01
• Series: BMC Geriatrics
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-020-1460-0

Abstract Background To analyse the reliability, variance and execution time of the Extended Timed Up and Go (Extended TUG) test in three age groups of elderly participants (G1: 55–64 years; G2: 65–74 years; G3: 75–85 years). Methods An analytical cross-sectional study of 114 recruited participants (63 women) of average age 70.17 (± 7.3) years was undertaken. Each participant performed the Extended TUG three consecutive times, with a rest break between tests of 120 s. Both the intragroup and intergroup reliability of the measurements in the Extended TUG were analysed. Results The reliability of the Extended TUG test is excellent for the first and second decades but drops down to good for the third decade. Specifically, intragroup reliability ranged from 0.784 for G3 to 0.977 for G1 (G2 = 0.858). Intergroup reliability, compared with intragroup reliability, was slightly lower, ranging between 0.779 for G3 and 0.972 for G1 (G2 = 0.853). Conclusion The reliability of the Extended TUG test progressively decreases with increasing age, being excellent for the younger age groups and good for the oldest age group.