---
name: mobility-assessment
description: Use when asked to administer, score, or explain a Mobility Assessment — balance and gait evaluation using the Tinetti Assessment Tool — grounded in FormExamples/form-examples; related to fall-risk-assessment.
---

# Mobility Assessment

Balance and gait evaluation using the Tinetti Assessment Tool
(Performance-Oriented Mobility Assessment), with fall risk
stratification.

## Scoring

**Instrument:** Tinetti Assessment Tool. Range 0–28.

- **< 19** — high fall risk.
- **19–24** — moderate risk.
- **25–28** — low risk.

## What it covers

Demographics; referral information; fall history; balance assessment;
gait assessment; Timed Up and Go; range of motion; assistive devices;
current medications; and functional independence.

## Relationship to fall-risk-assessment

The Tinetti tool here gives a detailed, observation-based balance/gait
evaluation; [[fall-risk-assessment]] uses the Morse Fall Scale, a
broader multi-domain risk score. The two are often used together — a
high Morse score commonly prompts this more detailed mobility
evaluation.

## Common pitfalls

- **Scoring gait/balance items without observing the actual task** —
  the Tinetti tool depends on directly observed performance (not
  self-report) for each item; substituting a verbal description misses
  what the tool is designed to catch.
- **Using medication review as an afterthought** — several medication
  classes (sedatives, antihypertensives, some psychiatric medications)
  directly affect balance and gait; reviewing them separately from the
  functional testing misses an easily modifiable contributing factor.
- **Treating the Timed Up and Go as optional** — it's a distinct,
  quick, high-value functional test that complements but doesn't
  duplicate the Tinetti balance/gait items; skipping it loses
  independent information.

## Learn more

- [FormExamples: mobility-assessment](https://github.com/FormExamples/form-examples/tree/main/forms/mobility-assessment) for the full implementation, clinical references, and worked examples.
- [[fall-risk-assessment]] for the related, broader fall-risk screening tool.