Concurrent Validity of the Seven-Item BBS-3P with Other Clinical Measures of Balance in a Sample of Stroke Patients

Kim, Da Yeon; Kim, Tae Ho; Kim, Jung Bin

Abstract

PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to investigate if the 7-item Berg balance scale (BBS) 3-point, which is a short form of the BBS (SFBBS), has compatible psychometric properties in comparison with the original BBS, and also to study the concurrent validity using a 10-meter walk test (10mWT) and a timed up and go test (TUG), which are widely used with SFBBS in clinical settings.
METHODS
A total of 255 patients who had experienced stroke participated in this cross-sectional study. We used results obtained from 188 patients who completed both 10mWT and TUG. The three levels in the center of the BBS were collapsed to a single level (i.e.,0-2-4) to form the SFBBS. The concurrent validity was assessed by computing the Spearman coefficients for correlation among outcome measures and in between each outcome measure and the SFBBS. As there were four outcomes, the corrected p-value for significant correlation was 0.013 (0.05/4).
RESULTS
Spearman coefficients for correlations and evaluation instruments for concurrent validity revealed significantly high validity for both of SFBBS and BBS (r=0.944). 10mWT and TUG were âˆ’0.749 and âˆ’0.770 respectively, which are in the high margin and are statistically significant (p>0.000).
CONCLUSION
SFBBS has sound psychometric properties for evaluating patients with stroke. Thus, we recommend the use of SFBBS in both clinical and research settings.