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 collected from 990 subjects, all 65 years of age or older, living in a community. The Motor Fitness Scale was created by totalling the score for each item on the questionnaire. A second-order covariance structure analysis 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 correlated with the summary physical performance score (r = 0.59). High discriminant 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 performance score. The Scale can also discriminate among older persons who are at the high end of the functional spectrum that determines their level of competence in daily life. The results suggest that the Motor Fitness Scale is a feasible substitute for the application of physical performance measures in assessing the physical function of older adults in the community.