ArticlesValidating the Berg Balance Scale for patients with Parkinson’s disease: A key to rehabilitation evaluation
Section snippets
Methods
The Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond, VA, is 1 of 6 Veterans Health System centers of excellence for the treatment of PD. Patients referred to Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Center (PADRECC) undergo a comprehensive interdisciplinary evaluation that includes examinations by a neurologist, neuropsychologist, and physiatrist. Eligible participants in this study were consecutively evaluated by the PADRECC physiatrist between August 2003 and
Demographic data
Participants were 38 male patients at the PADRECC clinic. Thirty (77%) identified themselves as white and the remainder as African American. Thirty patients (77%) lived with their wives only or with their families, while 3 lived alone, 2 lived with a nonfamily member, 1 lived in a nursing home, and the living arrangements of 2 participants were not reported. For the 27 patients who had complete information about how long since they were diagnosed with PD, the average time was 5.4±3.58 years
Discussion
Intact balance is a key building block for all functional activities, from upright sitting tasks to transfer skills to ambulation. Although a range of rehabilitation interventions have improved motor skills that affect activities of daily living and ambulation in people with PD,22, 23 specific improvements in PD-related balance have been less well demonstrated. A key factor accounting for this is the lack of a well-accepted, standardized balance measure for people with PD. Although such a
Conclusions
The consistent correlations found in this study support the clinical validity of the BBS in the PD population. Its increased use in this subpopulation of older adults may serve as both a useful screening test for balance deficits and a sensitive measure of changes in balance skills. This may provide for a better understanding of the specific effects of therapeutic interventions (eg, medications, deep brain stimulation, rehabilitation) on balance deficits in people with PD. The prospective,
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Supported by the Veterans Health Administration Southeastern Parkinson’s Disease Research, Education, and Clinical Center (PADRECC) and the Veterans Health Administration Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC). The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of PADRECC or DVBIC.
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the authors(s) or upon any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.