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In clinical research as well as good clinical practice increasing importance is placed on standardized and evaluated procedures. They provide information which is important for the prognosis, determination of the need for interventions, determination of treatment goals and evaluation of treatment approaches and outcomes. Furthermore, they serve as justification of the reimbursement for presentation to official bodies. Until now no officially authorized German version of the performance-oriented mobility assessment (POMA) according to Tinetti was available.This article presents a methodically translated German version of the POMA that also includes so far partially unpublished instructions for the examiner and the examined person.The internationally recognized recommendations for the cross-cultural adaptation of health status measures served as the foundation of the translation process. By means of three translations from the original language into the target language a preliminary consensus version was developed, which was then translated back into the original language by two native speakers.With this new and for the first time authorized German translation of the POMA a version of this assessment is available that achieves unification and standardization in German speaking countries and guarantees an improved comparability with international studies.

The aim of this project was to obtain information about drug therapy in geriatric units.Members of the geriatrics in Bavaria database (GiB-DAT) collected data on discharge medication and transferred them to the database. A total of 88,840 data sets of geriatric rehabilitation clinics and acute geriatric units were evaluated according to the anatomical therapeutic chemical (ATC) system.Patients (mean age: 81.1 years, female 67.7%) had an average of 10.4 diagnoses and took 8.0 drugs at discharge. A peak number of prescribed drugs was reached at the age of 60-70 years with a decrease in the following decades of life. Female patients received more drugs, significantly those in the decades from 71 to 80 and 81 to 90 years old. The bulk of the drugs were from the ATC groups "Cardiovascular system" (89.9%), "Nervous system" (82.3%) and "Alimentary tract and metabolism" (78%).

Static posturography is used to quantify body sway. It is used to assess the balance of elderly persons who are prone to falls. There is still no general opinion concerning the reliability of force platform measurements. The aim of this study was to test the reliability of force platform parameters when measuring elderly persons.The reliability of 11 force platform parameters was tested measuring 30 elderly persons. The following parameters were calculated: mean speed of center of pressure displacement in mm/s, length of sway in mm, sway area in mm(2), amplitudes of center of pressure movement, the axis of oscillation in degrees and the person's angles of inclination in degrees. Three measurements were taken on the same day, with a resting period of 2 min. Four different test conditions were used: normal standing and narrow stand with eyes open and eyes closed, respectively. Reliability was determined by using intraclass correlation coefficients.Six parameters had excellent reliability with a correlation coefficient of0.9: mean speed of center of pressure movement during narrow stand, area of sway during narrow stand, length of sway during normal and narrow stand, and the angle of inclination in the sagittal plane during normal stand and narrow stand. The condition "narrow stand eyes closed" proved to be the most reliable test position.Six parameters proved to have excellent reliability and are recommended to be used in further investigations. Narrow stand with eyes closed should be used as the test position. The tested protocol proved to be reliable. Whether these parameters can be used to predict falls in elderly persons remains to be investigated.

"Mobility and safety for the elderly (MoSi)") is a new intervention, especially designed for elderly people with gait disorders and for fallers.165 persons, 65 years or older, participated in this study.The participants were assessed prior to and after the 5-week intervention. The intervention included various elements of strength and balance training, stretching, reaction and coordination training, and information. The participants were instructed about how to prevent falls and what measures to take after a fall has occurred. Furthermore, they were taught home exercises. The intervention was set in an ambulatory physiotherapy department and consisted of 10 training sessions.Participants reported improved performance of gait (66 %), gait security (66 %), power (65 %), balance (62 %), sense of security (61 %) capacity (70 %) and well being (63 %).The Berg Balance Scale and the Balance test of the "Tinetti Balance Scale" showed significant improvements (p.001). The Timed Up and Go Test, the gait test of the Tinetti Balance Scale showed improvements in persons with very impaired gait (p.005). The Repeated Chair Stands Test showed no significant improvements. 137 (95 %) of the participants stated they would continue the exercises at home, 112 (79 %) stated they would continue the exercises under therapeutic supervision.The results show that the intervention is able to improve mobility and gait of elderly persons, subjectively and objectively, especially of persons with impaired gait. The motivation effect of the intervention was high which was marked by the large number of participants which wanted to continue their exercises at home. Furthermore, the intervention resulted in participants reporting improvements in other parameters such as capacity and well being.The intervention is able to improve important measures of balance in community dwelling older people. However, the effect on the number of falls still has to be investigated. The intervention is suitable for an ambulatory setting and shows significant effects after a short time. Due to the intervention's compactness it is appropriate for persons who normally would avoid training programs because of the duration.

Because of age-related modifications of the heart, lung, and circulation, several cardiopulmonary parameters present altered normal and reference values with increasing age. Other parameters, for example, arterial blood pressure, change only insignificantly with age. In older age groups it is more difficult to establish reference ranges and values because of the lack of "healthy" subjects. To establish cardiopulmonary parameters, appropriate investigations for the age group, for example, treadmill-ergometer, should be preferred. In judging if a value resulting out of the reference range is to be considered really pathologic, other factors are to be taken into account, such as circadian variations, motivation, associated pathologies as well as the actual physical and psychological conditions, when we are dealing with older subjects or patients.