Telephone-based assessment of walking confidence in older people.

To validate the telephone-based application of the modified Gait Efficacy Scale (mGES) for the assessment of walking confidence in older people. Participants answered the mGES-Brazil on two randomized occasions, face-to-face and by telephone. The mean difference (MD) between the interviews was reported. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC3,1) was used to investigate the levels of agreement between the two occasions for total mGES-Brazil scores and for the individual items. A total of 78 individuals were included. There was no significant difference in the MD obtained between applications of the mGES (1 point, 95% confidence interval -6 to 7). A very high level of agreement was found between the mGES total scores during face-to-face and telephone applications (ICC = 0.98; 95% CI 0.97-0.99). All items, except one (item 3), had a very high agreement between the two applications. The mGES showed to be reliable to be applied for telephone assessments of walking confidence in older people.