Citation

Akizuki K, Echizenya Y, Kaneno T, Ohashi Y. J. Rehabil. Med. 2019; 51(1): 71-76.

Affiliation

Physical Therapy, Kobe International University, , 658-0032 Kobe, Japan. akizuki@kobe-kiu.ac.jp.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Foundation for Rehabilitation Information)

DOI

10.2340/16501977-2504

PMID

30406266

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the usefulness of an un-stable board balance test in identifying a fall history among high-functioning community-dwelling elderly individuals.

DESIGN: Case-control study. SUBJECTS: Sixty-one community-dwelling elderly aged ≥ 65 years and having the capacity to walk independently without an assistive device.

METHODS: Subjects completed 3 balance performance tests: the Unstable Board Balance Test, Functional Reach Test, and Timed Up and Go. For analysis, subjects were classified as fallers or non-fallers based on the history of falls over the previous year, and performance outcomes were compared between the 2 groups. Subjects classified as fallers were then matched 1:1 with non-fallers (for sex, age, body weight and height), and the optimal cut-off score and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for each test were calculated.

RESULTS: Functional reach test and Timed Up and Go did not reliably discriminate between fallers and non-fallers. In contrast, the score on the unstable board balance test was significantly different between the 2 groups (p = 0.040). Among all 3 tests, AUC was largest for the unstable board balance test (0.78), with superior sensitivity (0.67) and specificity (0.87).

CONCLUSION: For high-functioning elderly subjects, the unstable board balance test was useful in discriminating between fallers and non-fallers.

Language: en

Keywords

assessmentoffalls; dynamicbalance; elderlypeople; historyoffalls