Nowadays, Spain is one of the European countries with the highest levels of life expectancy at birth (82.4 years). This entails a demographic revolution, which poses new challenges in the field of health, sustainability, and personal autonomy [1]. Although populations around the world are quickly aging, this increase of longevity is not being accompanied by a prolonged period of good health, therefore, a redefinition of healthy aging is necessary that emphasizes the concept of functional capacity [2].

Aging has been associated with frailty and functional limitation due to three factors: an irreversible biological process, deconditioning due to a sedentary lifestyle, and the effects of comorbidity [3]. Particularly, in older adults, motor performance deficits could be due to dysfunction of the central and peripheral nervous systems as well as the neuromuscular system [4].

There are several consequences of the alteration of motor unit morphology and properties on motor function of older adults, affecting different aspects of motor performance such as strength, power, contraction velocity, fatigability, and force steadiness [5]. Also, reaction time, low ability to control and execute movements, and difficulties in learning new motor skills [6], which lead to a large intra- and interindividual variability in many aspects of motor performance that increase with advanced aging [5]. With regard to this, older adults tend to walk more slowly, have reduced muscle strength, and show declines in memory and reasoning abilities. They also exhibit slower responses in speeded cognitive tasks compared to younger adults and to their own performance at earlier ages [7]. Therefore, gross motor skills which are used when moving from one place to another, climbing stairs, or avoiding any obstacles can decrease as the age increases [7, 8].

Quantitative biomarkers of aging are valuable tools to measure physiological age, evaluate the extent of “healthy aging”, and potentially predict health and life span for an individual. Being physical function and anthropometry the most practical measurements among phenotypic biomarkers of aging [9]. Especially, measuring physical capacity is a feasible method to identify accelerated aging and biological age [10]. Functional assessments for physical performance such as handgrip strength, chair stand, gait speed, complex gait, timed up and go, standing balance times, and 6-min walk tests are frequently used for monitoring the biological aging process since these tests are predictors of all-cause mortality and survival in older community-dwelling populations [11, 12]. In particular, motor competence (MC) could be a relevant phenotypic marker of health throughout life [13].

In this regard, physical function, expressed through MC, understood as the level of development of basic motor skills, is essential for performing most activities of daily life, work, personal autonomy, and leisure enjoyment, all of which align with physical functioning. In this sense, the systematic practice of physical activity leads to improve physical fitness and MC through a complex system of reciprocal interactions, enhancing individual’s overall health. Stodden et al. [14] established a conceptual model describing the relationships between physical activity, MC, physical fitness, obesity, and health. The model emphasizes that MC development is a primary underlying mechanism promoting participation in physical activity, with clear implications for health promotion. In this regard, current evidence indicates that MC is associated with health, correlates with physical activity levels [15], physical fitness [16], and weight status [17], as well as psychosocial health, cognitive functioning, and academic performance [18].

Several studies have shown that moderate physical activity reduces mortality and morbidity, and improves quality of life [19,20,21]. In addition, older adults with higher physical fitness and higher physical activity levels show more efficient brain activity and higher executive function [22]. Especially, older adults need to keep a proper MC level since it allows them to have greater independence (e.g., to move from one place to another on their own) [23]. Also, to avoid the risk of falls, which is one of the major causes of mortality at these ages [24]. In this regard, the relationship between MC and physical activity has been widely studied in the young population [25, 26]. Nevertheless, the number of studies that have adequately analyzed and evaluated MC in older adults remains limited [27, 28].

According to Hulteen et al. [29], the MC assessment has been used in multiple studies in child, adolescent, and young adult populations [18, 30, 31]; however, evidence across the entire adult age spectrum and in older adults is not yet available. In general, there has not been a focus on MC assessment in older adulthood (60 + years). In this sense, one of the limitations in studying and improving MC is the necessity for valid and reliable tests that allow researchers and professionals to quantify MC levels, identify skill deficiencies, and determine the effectiveness of interventions in developing motor skills [29].

Nowadays, several tests are used to assess MC in older adults [32]; nevertheless, these tests were not specifically designed for this population since they were designed to evaluate MC in a wide range of populations [8]; are based on observational scale [33]; have partially evaluated, through specific tests, certain components of MC such as balance, throwing, and walking [34, 35]; and have been designed to evaluate performance in daily living activities, primarily used to identify individuals at risk of disability or loss of functional independence. Additionally, many of these tests cannot be universalized as they involve motor skills that are not culturally transferable. The lack of ecological validity or the bias of qualified observation in qualitative assessments are additional limitations of the tests currently used to evaluate MC [36].

MC is evaluated through product- or process-oriented assessments. Product-oriented assessments emphasize on quantitative results of the task without assessing how a movement is executed which is analyzed from the perspective of the process, based on the qualitative aspects of the movement patterns [36]. Product measures are fundamentally more objective and may be the most advantageous alternative for examining changes in MC over time and reducing bias regarding the establishment of intra- and inter-rater reliability scores. However, measuring performance using product scores may be limited by access to technology [36]. Moreover, in aging research, it is necessary to develop tests that include cognitive challenges and mirror everyday demands; thus, environmental constraints and motor-cognitive demands should be inherently integrated into assessments of MC [36].

Currently, there is no international agreement on a reference test (gold standard) for evaluating MC in healthy older adult populations. Therefore, a quantitative and holistic evaluation of both locomotor and manipulative skills in a dual context would provide more precise information on the evolution of MC in older adult populations. Also, this test should emphasize on perceptuomotor integration in dynamic performance conditions (decision-making, force regulation, speed, and accuracy…) [36]. In addition, there are other factors such as the time required to conduct the test, the specific equipment, the organization of the results, the interpretation of the results [32], also monetary (equipment, research needed…), and non-monetary (time-consuming) cost [37] have to be kept in mind when an ecological test is designed.

Therefore, the objective of this study was to design and analyze the test–retest reliability of a test to assess MC in older adults, as well as the capacity of this test to discriminate between sex and age.