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Screening for poor performance of lower extremity in primary care: the Camucia Project

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Abstract

Background and aims: Individuals with poor lower extremity performance are prime candidates for disability prevention. The Camucia Project is a collaborative study between geriatricians and primary care physicians (PCPs) testing the hypothesis that PCPs can use a simple performance-based test to identify older persons with poor lower extremity function, without excessive interference with their clinical routine. We also hypothesized that the number needed to screen (NNTS) a positive case would be lower in physicians’ clinics than in the general population. Methods: 23 PCPs administered the short physical performance battery (SPPB) to 360 consecutive, non-disabled and non-demented, 70- to 79-year-old outpatients. PCPs were asked to: 1) evaluate the feasibility and usefulness of administering the SPPB; 2) ascertain selected diseases according to predefined criteria; 3) identify causes of poor lower extremity function in patients with a SPPB score ≤9. NNTS from this study were compared with those estimated in non-disabled and non-demented, 70- to 79-year-old persons randomly selected from the InCHIANTI study population. Results: The majority of PCPs (20/23) reported that using the SPPB to evaluate older patients was feasible and useful. The NNTS in the outpatient clinics was lower than in the InCHIANTI participants (1.6 vs 4.3). Poor lower extremity performance was attributed to musculo-skeletal diseases in 75%, to more than one cause in 55% (128/234), and to no specific cause in 16.2% (37/234) of the participants with SPPB ≤9. Conclusions: Screening of older persons with poor lower extremity perfomance by PCPs is feasible and efficient.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Clinical Epidemiology, Italian National Institute of Research and Care on Aging, Firenze

    Chiara Cavazzini, Stefania Bandinelli, Salvatore Gangemi, Fulvio Lauretani, Giada Lucci & Luigi Ferrucci MD, PhD

  2. Etruria Medical Cooperative, Arezzo, Italy

    Marco Conti & Marco Gallinella

  3. Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry, National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, MD

    Jack M. Guralnik

  4. Longitudinal Studies Section, Clinical Research Branch — ASTRA Unit, National Institute on Aging, Harbor Hospital, 5th Floor, 3001 Hanover St, Baltimore, MD, 21225, USA

    B. Gwen Windham & Luigi Ferrucci MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Chiara Cavazzini
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  2. Marco Conti
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  3. Stefania Bandinelli
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  4. Salvatore Gangemi
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  5. Marco Gallinella
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  6. Fulvio Lauretani
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  7. Giada Lucci
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  8. B. Gwen Windham
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  9. Jack M. Guralnik
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  10. Luigi Ferrucci MD, PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luigi Ferrucci MD, PhD.

Additional information

The abstract of this paper was presented at the 2nd Congress of the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society (EUGMS), Firenze, Italy 2003.

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Cavazzini, C., Conti, M., Bandinelli, S. et al. Screening for poor performance of lower extremity in primary care: the Camucia Project. Aging Clin Exp Res 16, 331–336 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324560

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324560

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