Southard Veronica, Dave Manisha, Davis Melanie Geiger, Blanco Janine, Hofferber Alison
New York Institute of Technology, Building 500, Room 501, Old Westbury, NY 11568, USA.
Gait Posture. 2005 Dec;22(4):351-5. doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2004.11.013. Epub 2005 Jan 8.
Falls are among the most common and serious problems facing the elderly. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS) is the gold standard in measuring falls risk. With higher functioning elders, a ceiling effect is often evidenced using the BBS. The purpose of this study was to determine if the Multiple Tasks Test (MTT) when used in high functioning community dwelling elderly correlated with the BBS. Secondly, this study assessed the unidimensionality of the MTT. If a relationship existed between the performance of multiple tasks and the potential loss of balance resulting in falls, then the MTT would be more appropriate than the BBS at predicting falls in higher functioning individuals.
Twenty-two independent community dwelling older adults were tested using both the MTT and the BBS on the same day at a senior center.
Correlations between the BBS and the MTT ranged between -0.765 and -0.79. The results of the Guttman's scalability analysis were a plus percentage ratio of 0.75 and an index of reproducibility of 0.93. Scales with these values are regarded as having evidence of unidimensionality.
All of the MTT tests correlated with the BBS. In addition, the MTT was found to be unidimensional.
Although the MTT correlated with the BBS and was found to be a good cumulative measure, it would benefit from continued study to examine quantifiability, validity and reliability. With further refinement and study, the MTT may be useful at discriminating fallers from non-fallers in high functioning older adults.
跌倒属于老年人面临的最常见且最严重的问题之一。伯格平衡量表(BBS)是衡量跌倒风险的金标准。对于功能较高的老年人,使用BBS时常常会出现天花板效应。本研究的目的是确定在功能较高的社区居住老年人中使用多任务测试(MTT)时,其是否与BBS相关。其次,本研究评估了MTT的单维度性。如果多任务表现与因跌倒导致的平衡能力潜在丧失之间存在关联,那么在预测功能较高个体的跌倒情况时,MTT将比BBS更为合适。
22名独立的社区居住老年人于同一天在老年中心接受了MTT和BBS测试。
BBS与MTT之间的相关性在-0.765至-0.79之间。古特曼可扩展性分析的结果是正百分比比率为0.75,再现性指数为0.93。具有这些值的量表被视为具有单维度性的证据。
所有MTT测试均与BBS相关。此外,MTT被发现具有单维度性。
尽管MTT与BBS相关且被发现是一种良好的累积测量方法,但继续研究以检验其可量化性、有效性和可靠性将使其受益。通过进一步完善和研究,MTT可能有助于区分功能较高的老年人中的跌倒者与非跌倒者。