Journal of

Introduction and purpose: Balance is an index to determine level of elderly independency in their daily activities.The present study, aimed to determine validity and reliability of "dynamic gaiting index (DGI)" in old women.

Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among 80 elderly aged more than 60 years old in Dehdasht city. The data were analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis with Prinicpal Component Analysis (PCA) and Varimax rotation, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, Cronbach’s Alpha, and U-Man-Withney test.

Findings: The results indicated that Persian version of DGI is a uni-dimensional construct with factor loading of 0.69.  Our findings revealed that these eight items explains 86.26 % of variability in DGI and the Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.89. In addition, Inter-rater reliability shows that the correlation between two raters, was significant and high (p<0/0001, r₌0.714). Likewise, the test-retest correlation, was significant and high (p<0.0001, r₌0.876).

Conclusion: This study showed that Persian version of dynamic gait index is consistent with the original English version.  Therefore, the dynamic gait index can be used in clinical, therapeutic and research settings to identify senior women who are at risk of falls.