Indian Journal of Physiotherapy & Occupational Therapy-An International Journal

Abstract

Purpose of study: When previous literature was reviewed, it was found that more researches are carried out in geriatrics than in healthy adults for screening static and dynamic balance. Also it is not clear if static balance can predict dynamic balance. Hence it was thought to assess co-relation between static and dynamic balance so that clinically it will help in assessment and treatment planning of patients. Validity and reliability of one leg stance test and multi directional reach test has been established and hence these tests were used to assess static balance and dynamic balance respectively.

Materials: stop watch, inch tape, marker, healthy individuals between 18-25 years of age.

Methodology: type of study - cross sectional. Healthy individuals between 18-25 years were assessed using both the scales. The time taken by individuals to maintain a single limb stance and the distance of reaches (in inches) of the individuals in forward and lateral directions were recorded.

Results: Pearson co-relation co-efficient was used to establish co-relation between both the scales. It was seen that there was no significant co-relation between the scores of one leg stance test and multi directional reach test.

Conclusion: from our study it was concluded that there is no co-relation between static and dynamic balance.

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Abstract

Introduction: In today's era, life expectancy has increased worldwide. Even in a country like India the concept of nuclear family has become popular and at times mandatory. The concept of nursing homes or old age homes is still not acceptable or affording. With this modernization and social changes in India, elderly people are forced to live independently if not throughout but at least for some time period. In such kind of society it is necessary for the elderly to be fit to remain independent. These changes have forced the society as a whole to ensure that falls decrease in elderly which otherwise can put social and economical burden on the society. So it is an important aspect for us as physiotherapists to stress upon evaluation of balance, which enables us to plan appropriate goals and the treatment plan for that particular individual and minimize the number of falls. Quite a few studies have been done regarding predicting falls in elderly using various outcome measures. A study has been conducted to find out the concurrent validity of DGI but there has been no study which has compared the efficacy of BBS and DGI to predict falls in elderly population Thus an attempt is made to compare the sensitivity and specificity of these two scales.

Aim&Objective: To compare the effectiveness of Berg Balance Scale and Dynamic Gait Index in predicting falls in elderly.

Study Design: Cross sectional descriptive

Participants: 150 elderly subjects (>65 Years of age) from community and old age home.

Materials and Method: A routine physiotherapy assessment for 150 elderly individuals was conducted. Berg Balance Scale and Dynamic Gait Index were administered.

Statistical analysis: Spearman's correlation coefficient was used for correlating BBS and DGI. Sensitivity and Specificity formulae were used for each scale.

Results: BBS and DGI showed moderate correlation with each other (r=.731)and with falls in elderly (r=.582,r=0.520)Sensitivity of BBS was found to be 0.90 and of DGI to be 0.86.Specificity of BBS and DGI was found to be 0.54 and 0.697 respectively.

Conclusion: DGI proved to be a better outcome measure to be used in ambulatory population to predict falls.

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