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Introduction

Objective measures of physical functioning are widely used as an indicator of health in older adults. From a gerontologic perspective, physical functioning is a crucial determinant and predictor of health outcomes. Basic markers of physical performance such as walking speed have been shown to predict adverse outcomes including incident disability in activities of daily living , incident dementia , hospitalization , and survival . From a surgical perspective, physical functioning as well as frailty, of which physical performance measures are a major component, is predictive of post-operative outcomes , complications , and early hospital readmissions .

Physical performance measures are especially relevant to the field of otolaryngology, where diseases and treatment can often have a significant impact on patients’ functioning. Head and neck cancer survivors, for instance, experience persistent deterioration in subjective physical functioning despite recovering their global quality of life . Within otology, conditions such as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and Meniere’s disease, can create severe balance disturbances that limit a person’s ability to ambulate and perform basic tasks. Balance problems can also result from common otologic surgeries such as cochlear implantation and other procedures involving the ear and lateral skull base . Furthermore, hearing loss, which affects approximately two-thirds of older adults in the United States , is independently associated with poorer self-reported physical functioning and walking speed . There is evidence that the relationship between hearing loss and physical functioning is mediated by more than concomitant vestibular disease, as hearing loss has been shown to be associated with falls independent of vestibular function .

Despite the relevance of physical functioning to head and neck diseases, there are currently no objective metrics of physical performance commonly in use within otolaryngology. Such a metric would be important for characterizing study populations, as a covariate to investigate differential response to treatment, or an outcome measure after an associated intervention. The Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly – Short Physical Performance Battery (EPESE SPPB) is a validated, objective measure of lower extremity function for older adults . The battery consists of physical tasks involving rising from a chair, standing balance, and walking speed. Performance in the SPPB is predictive of self-reported disability , rehospitalization , nursing home admission, and mortality . In the present study, we explored the feasibility of using the SPPB to assess the physical functioning of a sample of older adults seen in a tertiary care otolaryngology clinic.