Item Dynamic Gait Index

Physical Therapy examination of the older and frail patients in the home care should be carefully chosen in able to determine the appropriateness of the test. These functional test should give the clinician the valuable information regarding the patient overall functions, the degree of frailty, endurance and risk for falls. By performing this test, the patient’s functional impairment level is determined and therefore, gives the clinician a baseline for treatment. Additionally, screening tool should be simple and less time consuming in able to use to identify the need for another discipline. In our aging population, the number of frail older people who have mobility problems and suffer from recurrent falls is rapidly increasing. The
The test result is easier for the patient and caregiver to understand and relate to their daily activities.
4 Item Dynamic Gait Index The Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) is a functional screening test used to measure the mobility performance (Matsuda, Taylor, & Shumway-Cook, 2015). This test identifies gait responses to changing demands in patient with balance and vestibular disorders. It also provide an observational gait analysis of the patient (Matsuda, Taylor, & Shumway-Cook, 2015).
The mode of administration of this test is by asking the patient to perform a performance task examination. It takes approximately 5-10 minutes to complete the test. The DGI evaluates four aspects of gait by using a four-point ordinal scale, ranging from 0-3. The score of 0 indicates the lowest level of function, a score of 3 is the highest level of function (Shumway-Cook, Taylor, Matsuda, Studer, & Whetten, 2013).
To interpret the test reliability, an evidence to support is important to obtain. For most of the task with exceptions of Stairs, the reliability scored high ranging from 94 to 100% (Matsuda, Taylor, & Shumway-Cook,
Evaluating a performance of a patient in DGI may be useful in identifying gait deviations and in evaluating gait improvement as a result of the intervention (Marchetti, Whitney, Blatt, Morris, & Vance, 2008).
In assessing the psychometric properties of both test, the reliability of the gait speed is high as the screening can be perform time and time with little variation. Because the test is easy to administer the test is reproducible by both professional and non-clinicians. (Crist, McVay, & Marocco, 2013, p.10). In the journals written by Alghwiri, 2014, regarding Reliability and Validity of the Arabic Dynamic Gait Index in People Post-stroke, the interrater and intrarater reliability of the A-DGI total score reflected in the high agreement.
The validity of the test will tell us how meaningful the interpretation of the test is. Gait speed predicts future health status and thus shows useful validity (Matsuda, Taylor, & Shumway-Cook, 2015). The strength of the psychometric properties of the DGI supports the validity and usefulness of scores for clinical and research purposes (Matsuda, Taylor, & Shumway-Cook, 2014). Also, the sensitivity of the test is approximately 87% or high in identifying people at risk of falls (Pardasaney et al.,