earticle

영어

Aging, in general, leads to changes in skeletal, collagenous, and cardiovascular tissues, body composition, nervous and immune systems, as well as the hormonal axis. As a result, most elderly people have remarkably impaired aerobic capacity/endurance, joint mobility, muscle performance, balance as well as abnormal position and gait patterns, cognitive disorders and depression. Based on age-related changes in the elderly, clinicians use measurements of the following: aerobic capacity/endurance (the 6-min walk test), position (range of motion and thoracic kyphosis index), strength (the grip strength test), gait (the 10-m walk test and dynamic gait index), balance (the Berg balance scale, timed ‘up and go’ test, and functional reach test), cognition and depression (the mini-mental state exam, activities-specific balance confidence scale, geriatric depression scale), and functional activity (the functional independence measure, Katz index of independence in activities of daily living, and modified Barthel index), as standard clinical assessment tools to establish appropriate therapeutic exercise programs for successful rehabilitation. This review describes several clinical assessment tools and elucidates implementation guidelines for the assessment of functional mobility among the elderly in clinical settings. Moreover, this review provides valuable information for clinicians and researchers for exploring the systematic evaluation strategies and optimal therapeutic programs to enhance functional mobility in the elderly.