Introduction: Among people, aged 65 years or more, falls are the main cause of death due to injuries. They occur because of the mismatch between the physiological function, environmental requirements and one's behaviour. Purpose: Test the discriminatory validity of the Medio-lateral step test for falls among the residents of a nursing home. Methods of work: 31 subjects, who were functionally independent, with and without the experience of a fall, took part in the research. They did the step test in the mediolateral direction, in a sitting and standing position. The acquired data was statistically processed. Results: Those who have fallen in the past year had a significantly worse result than those that haven't. The analysis of the ROC curve showed a satisfying to good validity of the Medio-lateral step test for falls among the residents of a nursing home. Discussion and conclusion: On the basis of the acquired data and the analysis of the ROC curve we conclude that the Medio-lateral step test would be useful as a predictor of falls. The test can help us to identify the risk of falls in older adults living in nursing homes. Further research is needed to determine other measurement properties of the test, such as predictive validity and reliability.
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