Reference group data for the functional gait assessment.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) is a clinical tool for evaluating performance in walking. The purpose of this study was to determine age-referenced norms for performance on the FGA in community-living older adults. SUBJECTS: Subjects were 200 adults, ages 40 to 89 years, living independently. METHODS: Each subject completed the FGA one time and was scored simultaneously by 2 testers. RESULTS: The intraclass correlation coefficient for interrater reliability was .93. Mean scores for the FGA ranged from 29/30 for adults in their 40s to 21/30 for adults in their 80s. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Patient performance on the FGA can be compared with age-referenced norms for expected performance. Further research is needed to determine the FGA's usefulness in tracking clinical changes or predicting falls. The FGA is a reliable test for people without disease, and it is able to detect decreases in gait performance among typical older adults.