Alternative scoring for Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE)

BackgroundStudies assessing physical functioning with the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) should be aware that the instrument may be age and culture insensitive.ObjectivesTo asses “classical” PASE scoring in a sample of aged (mean age 74) Mexican origin Latinos in the Southwestern United States and provide a new scoring algorithm.MethodInformation from a cross sectional study of 2438 community-dwelling minority subjects who completed the PASE scale was scored with the classical and a new scoring approach to compare their similarity and predictive power on three items of functional ability.ResultsThe classical and new scoring procedures for PASE items render different total scores.ConclusionThe classical approach for scoring PASE in aged minorities may fail to capture the age and culture insensitivity of the instrument. The new approach, or a derivation of it, should be used to compute the total PASE score for minority aged populations as further research continues.