Abstract

Background: Maintenance of physical fitness is a cornerstone of geriatric preventive care. Senior fitness test (SFT) is a simple test for assessing physical fitness of the geriatric population. However, its reliability in the Indian setting has not been well established.
Objective: To determine the relative and absolute test–retest reliability of SFT as a physical fitness tool of the geriatric population in the community.
Materials and Methods: A community-based prospective, nonexperimental study was carried out in an urban community of Guwahati, Assam, India. Thirty-one physically active, elderly individuals (aged ≥65 and <75 years) were asked to perform the SFT, at baseline and at a second session after 2–3 days, to assess the reliability of the test. Intra-rater variability and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of the SFT were assessed. Reliability of the tests was measured using the standard error of measurement (SEM), minimal detectable change (MDC), and log-transferred limits of agreement of Bland–Altman plots. Result: The relative reliability of entire physical fitness test (SFT) was shown to be excellent. The ICC at the 95% confidence interval (CI) for all the tests ranged between 0.933 and 1.000. The F test values were significant for all the tests (0.00). The width of the CI of ICC ranged between 0.0 and 0.107 with body mass index having the smallest CI (0.0) and arm curl test (0.1.07) having the largest CI. The SEM and MDC values were small ranging from 0.43 to 0.0 and from 0.0 to 1.8 for all tests except for the 2-min step test. The SEM and MDC for the 2-min step test was 1.48 and 4.12, respectively. Bland–Altman plots for all the tests were positively skewed and heteroscedastic. Conclusion: Test–retest reliability of the physical fitness test was excellent and these tests were thus applicable for cross-sectional and controlled interventional studies for the elderly population.