Physical fitness in older people with ID—Concept and measuring instruments: A review § Thessa I.M. Hilgenkamp a,b, *, Ruud van Wijck c , Heleen M. Evenhuis a a Intellectual Disability Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Department of General Practice, Rotterdam, The Netherlands b Abrona, Huis ter Heide, The Netherlands c Center for Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands 1. Introduction 1.1. Background Physical fitness describes how ‘fit’ a person physically is to cope with the demands set by his/her environment. For older adults to continue living independently, these demands include activities of daily life (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily life (IADL) (Bouchard & Shephard, 1994). ADL are activities necessary for self-care, like eating or bathing. IADL cover activities necessary for independent living, like cleaning, cooking or doing groceries (Rosen, Sorkin, Goldberg, Hagberg, & Research in Developmental Disabilities 31 (2010) 1027–1038 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 7 April 2010 Received in revised form 9 April 2010 Accepted 19 April 2010 Keywords: Physical fitness Instrumentation Adult Mental retardation ABSTRACT A certain level of physical fitness is a prerequisite for independent functioning and self- care, but the level of physical fitness declines with ageing. This applies to older adult with intellectual disabilities too, but very little is known about their actual level of physical fitness. This lack of knowledge is partly caused by a lack of suitable instruments to measure physical fitness in this group, but the search for and choice of instruments depends on the operationalisation of the concept physical fitness for specific this target population. In this article the advantages of two known definitions of physical fitness are combined, leading to a combination of seven components to describe physical fitness in older adults with intellectual disabilities: coordination, reaction time, balance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and cardio-respiratory endurance. A literature search for all instruments to measure any of these components resulted in a large number of available instruments. These instruments were evaluated according criteria of functionality, reliability and feasibility in this target population. The aim of this article was to propose a selection of instruments which complied with these criteria and creates possibilities for widespread use and sharing and/or pooling of data. The proposed selection of tests to measure physical fitness in older adults with intellectual disabilities is: Box and Block test, Reaction time test with an auditive and visual signal, Berg balance scale, Walking speed comfortable and fast, Grip strength with a hand dynamometer, 30 s chair stand, modified back saver sit and reach and the 10 m incremental shuttle walking test. ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. § Sources of support: This study was carried out with the financial support of ZonMw (nr 57000003) and the participating care providers Abrona (Huis ter Heide), Amarant (Tilburg) and Ipse de Bruggen (Zwammerdam), all in the Netherlands. * Corresponding author at: Erasmus Medical Center, Department of General Practice, Intellectual Disability Medicine, Postbus 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 6 21587628. E-mail address: t.hilgenkamp@erasmusmc.nl (Thessa I.M. Hilgenkamp). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Research in Developmental Disabilities 0891-4222/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.04.012