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Crucible Care

Glossary

Senior fall-prevention terminology, defined.

The clinical terms a DON, a compliance reviewer, or a regional VP needs to recognize before approving Crucible Care. Each entry includes how the program uses the term and what the at-risk thresholds are.

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Activities of daily living (ADLs)

The basic self-care tasks every resident performs every day: bathing, dressing, transferring, toileting, eating, walking.

Crucible Care does not measure ADLs directly. The five clinical assessments are proxies for the strength and balance that ADLs depend on. A resident whose sit-to-stand reps go from 7 to 12 has, by definition, an easier time getting up from the toilet without help.

How Crucible Care uses it

ADL impact is the implied outcome behind every assessment we run.

AHRQ

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Federal agency under HHS. Publishes the long-term-care fall-rate data senior-living operators use as a baseline.

AHRQ's published fall-rate average for long-term-care facilities is around 1.5 falls per bed per year. Higher in facilities with more advanced-care residents. The ROI calculator on the pilot page uses 1.5 as a default; your real number is on your incident-report rollup.

CDC STEADI

Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths, and Injuries. The CDC's clinical framework for fall prevention.

STEADI defines the assessment thresholds clinicians use to classify a resident's fall risk. Sit-to-stand under 8 reps, TUG over 12 seconds, single-leg balance under 5 seconds. Crucible Care uses the same thresholds, so a Crucible outcomes report reads cleanly to anyone trained on STEADI.

How Crucible Care uses it

Every clinical assessment threshold in the program comes from STEADI or from Rikli & Jones.

Confidence score

Self-reported movement confidence on a 1-to-5 scale. Approximation of the Falls Efficacy Scale.

Fear of falling independently predicts future falls. A resident who has stopped walking to dinner because they are afraid is more likely to fall, even when their physical capacity is unchanged. The confidence score captures that signal so the program can address it.

How Crucible Care uses it

Assessed at week 1, 6, and 12. Confidence at 1-2 is a high-priority flag.

Fall-risk band

A composite category. Low risk, moderate risk, elevated risk, high risk. Computed from the assessment battery.

Bands are useful where a single number is not. A resident moving from high-risk to moderate-risk is a documented outcome the family and the surveyor both recognize. Cohort-level band shifts are the headline metric in the outcomes report.

How Crucible Care uses it

Per-resident band shift, week 1 to week 12, is the primary outcome we report.

Grip strength

Hand-grip force on a dynamometer, dominant hand. Strongly correlates with whole-body strength, frailty, and mortality risk in geriatric research.

Grip is one of the most predictive single measures in geriatric assessment. Adding load-bearing work into a 12-week program reliably moves grip in measurable amounts. The numbers we report use sex-specific norms.

How Crucible Care uses it

Sex-specific norms: men 65+ at <20kg is weak, women 65+ at <13kg is weak.

PAR-Q

Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire. Pre-program screening tool.

Every Crucible Care participant completes a PAR-Q review before week 1. Residents with cardiac, pulmonary, or orthopedic flags are reviewed individually before track placement. Some are excluded from active participation; the protocol includes explicit exclusion criteria.

How Crucible Care uses it

Screening gate before any resident enters the program.

Rikli & Jones Senior Fitness Test

The clinical assessment battery for older adults, published 1999, refined in 2013.

Rikli & Jones is the source of three of the five tests Crucible Care runs: the 30-second sit-to-stand, the timed up and go (TUG), and the single-leg balance. Each test has age- and sex-stratified norms a clinical reviewer recognizes on sight.

How Crucible Care uses it

Source of three of our five clinical assessments and all the normative bands behind the report.

Single-leg balance

Eyes-open single-leg stance, timed in seconds. Direct measure of postural control.

A strong predictor of fall risk in older adults. Bands: 10+ seconds is good, 5-9 is moderate, under 5 is high risk and indicates the resident should always train with chair or wall support.

How Crucible Care uses it

Assessed week 1, 6, 12. Under 5 seconds is a high-priority safety flag.

Sit-to-Stand (30-second STS)

Number of full sit-to-stand repetitions completed in 30 seconds, arms crossed at the chest.

The most direct proxy for lower-body strength in older adults. Bands: 12+ is low risk for the 60-70 age group, 8-11 is moderate, under 8 is high risk and triggers a chair-based or supported-stand modification.

How Crucible Care uses it

The most-cited number in every cohort report. Easiest single measurement to communicate to families.

STEADI

See CDC STEADI.

Same framework. Two abbreviations because CDC's own site uses both. We use either consistently within a single document.

Timed Up and Go (TUG)

Time in seconds to rise from a chair, walk 3 meters, turn, and return.

Proxy for functional mobility and integrated fall risk. STEADI bands: under 10 seconds normal, 10-12 borderline, 12-14 elevated, over 14 high risk requiring physician consult and chair-based modifications.

How Crucible Care uses it

Assessed week 1, 6, 12. Often the test that moves most visibly between baseline and final.

For clinical reviewers

Want the full clinical summary?

One-page PDF covering assessment methodology, the safety framework, the medical screening process, and the safety documentation set. Email care@crucible.fit and we send it within one business day. Or read the full safety framework on the site.