A self-report home environment screening tool identified older women at risk of falls

Objective: To evaluate a self-report version of the Home Falls and Accidents Screening Tool (HOME FAST-SR).

Study design and setting: The HOME FAST-SR was designed using expert review, pretesting and piloting. Agreement of self-reported home hazard ratings and ratings by health professionals was evaluated using the kappa statistic. The HOME FAST-SR was validated in a cross-sectional survey of 568 older community-living Australian women using endorsement rates for HOME FAST-SR items and the association of scores with self-reported falls.

Results: The 87-item HOME FAST-SR was constructed, and a scoring system was devised to calculate equivalent scores for the health professional version of the HOME FAST (HOME FAST-HP). Endorsement rates demonstrated that no items needed to be removed. Agreement between self-reported and professional ratings was moderate with therapists under-reporting hazards compared with older people. The mean HOME FAST score for the 568 cross-sectional participants was 9.39 (95% confidence interval: 9.1, 9.7) with a range from 2 to 23 out of a possible 25. Fallers had a significantly higher HOME FAST score (P=0.02).

Conclusion: The HOME FAST-SR is a viable alternative to the HOME FAST-HP, and scores were associated with falls experienced by older women in a cross-sectional study.