Assessment of Balance by Age and Disease

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J Geriatr Phys Ther. 2005;28(1):14-9.

Are Measures Employed in the Assessment of Balance Useful for

Detecting Differences among Groups that Vary by Age and Disease State?

Brotherton SS, HG, Gossard JL, Hussey JR, McClenaghan BA,

Eleazer P.

Physical Therapy Education Program, Department of Rehabilitation

Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, PO Box 250700,

ton, SC 29425 Ph: 843-792-2930, Fax: 843-792-0710

PURPOSE: This study explored the usefulness of measures commonly

employed in the examination of persons with balance impairment to

discriminate between performances of young and older adults and older

adults with and without neurological disease.

METHODS: Eighteen young adults, 22 healthy older adults, 12

individuals with Parkinson disease, and 20 older adults with

peripheral neuropathy were recruited from the community.Performances

on the following measures were compared: Mini Mental State Exam, grip

strength, timed chair rise, semitandem and tandem stance, Timed Up

and Go (TUG), and Berg Balance Scale (BBS). Survival analysis was

used to analyze semitandem and tandem stance. Grip strength and other

tests were analyzed using analysis of variance.Tukey multiple

comparison procedure was employed to assess differences in

performance among groups.

RESULTS: Significant differences in performance were found for all

measures. Grip and timed chair rise discriminated young and older

adult groups. Timed chair rise, tandem stance, TUG, and BBS detected

differences between healthy individuals and those with disease.

Semitandem stance and BBS discriminated between individuals with

disease conditions.

CONCLUSIONS: When examining individuals with balance difficulty,

combinations of measures are needed to discriminate between

clinically distinct groups.