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Validation of the Life-Space Assessment (LSA-CI) in multi-morbid, older persons without cognitive impairment

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Key summary points

AbstractSection Aim

To validate the “Life-Space Assessment in Persons with Cognitive Impairment” (LSA-CI) to assess mobility within the environment including contextual factors in older persons without cognitive impairment.

AbstractSection Findings

Excellent feasibility with 100% completion rate and average assessment duration of 4 min in 65 older persons. The LSA-CI composite score stood out with moderate to high construct validity, excellent test–retest reliability and moderate sensitivity to change. Analysis of sub-scores confirmed most of the composite score results.

AbstractSection Message

The LSA-CI represents a valid, reliable, responsive, and highly feasible assessment method in multi-morbid, older persons without cognitive impairment, and can be recommended for use in clinical practice and research.

Abstract

Purpose

The “Life-Space Assessment in Persons with Cognitive Impairment” (LSA-CI) to assess mobility within the environment including frequency and independence in 1 week has been developed for and successfully validated in older persons with mild to moderate cognitive impairment. However, its psychometric properties in persons without cognitive impairment are unknown. This study aims to validate the LSA-CI in older persons without cognitive impairment.

Methods

Comprehensive validation with construct validity, test–retest reliability and sensitivity to change of the LSA-CI including the main composite score and three sub-scores in community-dwelling older persons recruited during geriatric rehabilitation.

Results

Excellent feasibility with 100% completion rate and an average assessment duration of 4 min in 65 older, multimorbid persons (mean age: 81.4 ± 5.9 years; 72.3% female; average number of diagnoses: 11.1 ± 4.4). The LSA-CI composite score stood out with moderate to high construct validity (Spearman correlation coefficients |0.26|–|0.60|), excellent test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.890) and moderate sensitivity to change (adjusted standardized response mean 0.70). Analysis of sub-scores confirmed most of the composite score results.

Conclusions

The LSA-CI represents a valid, reliable, responsive, and highly feasible assessment method in multi-morbid, older persons without cognitive impairment, supporting the use of the LSA-CI in clinical practice and research.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available as the ethical vote did not include open data access, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was funded by the Social and Private Long-Term Care Insurance (Soziale und Private Pflegeversicherung) and the Municipal Association for Youth and Social Affairs in Baden-Württemberg (Kommunalverband für Jugend und Soziales Baden-Württemberg) (Grant No: 80221-208-009-01-01). Funders had no role in study concept and design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Geriatric Medicine, AGAPLESION Bethanien Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg University, Rohrbacher Str. 149, 69126, Heidelberg, Germany

    Phoebe Ullrich, Bastian Abel, Juergen M. Bauer & Klaus Hauer

  2. Center for Geriatric Medicine, Heidelberg University, 69117, Heidelberg, Germany

    Bastian Abel, Juergen M. Bauer & Klaus Hauer

Authors
  1. Phoebe Ullrich
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  2. Bastian Abel
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  3. Juergen M. Bauer
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  4. Klaus Hauer
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Contributions

PU participated in data collection, conducted data analyses and drafted the manuscript. BA, JMB, and KH made critical revision of the article. KH was responsible for the conception of this study and study design. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Klaus Hauer.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Departmwnt of Heidelberg University (Ref. S-252/2015).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Ullrich, P., Abel, B., Bauer, J.M. et al. Validation of the Life-Space Assessment (LSA-CI) in multi-morbid, older persons without cognitive impairment. Eur Geriatr Med 12, 657–662 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-020-00441-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-020-00441-9

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