INTRODUCTION: A fear of falling marks an important psychological factor connected with a reduction in the life space of people with dementia. The Czech version of the Falls Efficacy Scale-International (FES-I) has not been validated in patients with early-stage dementia. METHODS: The tests were administered to 282 patients with early-stage dementia. The test battery included the following: the FES-I, the Short Physical Performance Battery, the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Bristol Activity Daily Living Scale, and the Quality of Life-Alzheimer's Disease Scale. Internal reliability (Cronbach's α and intraclass correlation [ICC]), Pearson's and Spearman's correlations, exploratory factor analysis, and a t test for independent samples were used for statistical analyses. RESULTS: The Czech version of the FES-I had excellent internal and test-retest reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.98, ICC = 0.90; 95' CI 0.82-0.94). Factor analysis suggested 2 relevant factors. A significantly higher FES-I score was associated with patients with early-stage dementia who were older (p = 0.003) or female (p = 0.001), lived alone (p = 0.0001), spent >8 h a day alone (p = 0.032), used mobility aids (p < 0.0001), or had severe hearing (p = 0.004) or vision impairment (p < 0.0001) or a lower education (r = -0.16, p = 0.007). CONCLUSION: The Czech version of the FES-I had very good reliability and validity and may be useful in future cross-cultural comparisons in research among patients with early-stage dementia.

Center for Medical Education and Internationalization Graduate School of Medicine Kyoto University Kyoto Japan

Centre for Research and Science Faculty of Health Sciences Palacký University Olomouc Olomouc Czechia

Department of Anthropology and Health Education Faculty of Education Palacký University Olomouc Olomouc Czechia

Neurology Clinic University Hospital Hradec Králové Hradec Králové Czechia

Neurology Clinic University Hospital Ostrava Ostrava Czechia

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