Validity and reliability of the 12-item Berg Balance Scale in an Italian population with Parkinson’s disease: A cross sectional study

Abstract

<jats:p>ABSTRACT Background: The Berg Balance Scale is widely used to measure balance ability in clinical practice. Recently, the original version was redefined from 14 into 12 items. Its psychometric properties were investigated for different populations. However, for Parkinson disease the new version has not been validated yet. Objective: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate psychometric properties of the 12-item Berg Balance Scale (BBS-12) in a population with Parkinson disease. Methods: Internal consistency was evaluated with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, whereas reliability was assessed with the intraclass correlation coefficient. For validity analysis, the Pearson correlation coefficient of the BBS-12 was evaluated with the Tinetti Scale and the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly. Results: The BBS-12 was applied to 50 individuals with a mean age of 65.6 years (SD 11.8). The internal consistency showed a good value (Cronbach's alpha 0.886) and reproducibility reveled very high performances for both inter-rater and intra-rater reliabilities (ICC 0.987 and 0.986, respectively). The validity study demonstrated good linear correlation with the Tinetti Scale (p&lt;0.01) and with the Sport and Home Subscales of the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (p&lt;0.01). Conclusions: The present findings revealed the BBS-12 as a reliable and valid assessment tool to measure balance ability in Parkinson disease. Italian health professionals can now use it with more confidence.</jats:p>

Psychometric Properties of the Urdu Translation of Berg Balance Scale in People with Parkinson’s Disease

“…It has also been reported that Pakistani men are disproportionately affected by PD, representing 63% of the affected population [ 57 , 58 ]. Furthermore, this is comparable to previous studies in which more males were recruited [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. In the study conducted for the psychometric testing of the Japanese version, slightly more females than males were enrolled [ 18 ].…”

“…The findings are comparable to those of other language versions of BBS, such as Japanese, Brazilian, and Persian [ 18 , 21 , 23 ]. Internal consistency measured by Cronbach’s α came out to be 0.80, whereas the α values were slightly higher in the Brazilian version (Cronbach’s α = 0.92), the Italian version (0.89) [ 25 ], and in the Iranian version (0.92) [ 24 ].…”

“…Similarly, BBS has been shown to have high inter-rater and intra-rater reliability in PD patients [ 7 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. The psychometric properties of BBS translation in different languages have been evaluated in people with Parkinson’s disease [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. However, no study reported the psychometric properties of the Urdu translation for patients with PD.…”

Translation, Cultural Adaptation, and Psychometric Properties of the Life Satisfaction Index for the Third Age—Short Form (LSITA-SF12) for Use among Ethiopian Elders

“…The Pearson correlation coefficient for concurrent validity demonstrated a strong positive relationship of the LSITA-SF12with the SWLS. Similar reports were reported in the original English Version LSITA-SF12 and the 35 items LSITA [13,26]. The finding was also supported by literature in which Pearson correlation coefficient between 0 and ±0.3 represents weak relationship; between ±0.3 and ±0.7 moderate relationship; between ±0.7 and ±1.0 strong relationship [27,28].…”

Development of a Berg Balance Scale Short-Form Using a Machine Learning Approach in Patients With Stroke

“…The psychometric properties (including reliability, 8-12 validity, 9,10,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] and responsiveness 17,[26][27][28][29][30] ) of the BBS are well supported. In the past decade, researchers in health care-related fields have been developing short forms of widely used clinical settings and medical research measures (eg, PROMIS, 31 Mini-Mental Status Examination).…”