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BERG - Balance Scale

The Berg Balance Scale is a 14-item scale used to measure balance abilities in elderly patients with conditions affecting balance like stroke and Parkinson's disease. It takes 15-20 minutes to administer and has high internal consistency, intra-rater and inter-rater reliability, and validity established through correlations with other balance measures. A score below 45 predicts risk of falls.

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Sandra Martins
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214 views3 pages

BERG - Balance Scale

The Berg Balance Scale is a 14-item scale used to measure balance abilities in elderly patients with conditions affecting balance like stroke and Parkinson's disease. It takes 15-20 minutes to administer and has high internal consistency, intra-rater and inter-rater reliability, and validity established through correlations with other balance measures. A score below 45 predicts risk of falls.

Uploaded by

Sandra Martins
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Berg Balance Scale

Description
The Berg Balance Scale 1-3 is an objective measure of balance abilities. The test has been
used to identify and evaluate balance impairment in the elderly.

Population Time to Complete Cost Training


The elderly client 15-20 minutes Nominal None required
with stroke,
Parkinson’s disease
and other causes of
balance impairment.

INSTRUCTIONS
The directions for items are provided on the scoring sheet.

SCALING

Format
• Task performance.

Subscales
• The scale consists of 14 tasks common in everyday life. The items test the subject’s
ability to maintain positions or movements of increasing difficulty by diminishing the base
of support from sitting, standing, to single leg stance. The ability to change positions is also
assessed. Each item is scored on a scale from 0-4, for a minimum of 56 points.

Scoring
• Scoring is based on a 5-point ordinal scale.

• A score of 4 – performs movements independently and holds position for the prescribed
time or performed within a set time frame. 0 – unable to perform item. A description of the
criteria for scoring each level is provided.
RELIABILITY
Internal consistency
Fourteen clients aged 65 and over displaying varying degrees of balance impairment were
videotaped while performing the 14 movements on the scale. Cronbach’s alpha for the total score
was 0.96. Individual items ranged from 0.72 to 0.90. Correlations ranged from 0.38 to 0.94.

Intra-rater Reliability
Four therapists rated the same videotape again, one week later. The ICC for the total score was
0.99, ranging from 0.71 to 0.99 for the individual items. 2,3

Inter-rater Reliability
Five physiotherapists and one test administrator rated the evaluations of the same 14 clients. The
ICC for the total score was excellent (0.99), and was good to excellent for the individual items
(0.71-0.99). 2,3

VALIDITY
Content (domain or face)
The items were selected based on interview with 10 professionals and 12 geriatric clients. The list
of items was revised following a pretest of all preliminary items.

Construct
Seventy acute stroke clients were tested on the Berg Balance Scale, the Barthel, and the Fugl-
Meyer Scale at 4, 6 and 12 weeks post-stroke. Correlations between the Berg scale and the
Barthel were 0.80 to 0.94, and 0.62 to 0.94 for the Fugl-Meyer. 2,3

Concurrent
The score of 23 clients on the Berg Balance Scale were correlated with the global ratings
provided by caregivers (poor, fair, good). Spearman correlations were significant, with only 4
pairs of observation not corresponding.

Correlations between scores on the Berg Balance Scale and ratings of 113 residents of a home for
the elderly and their caregivers ranged from poor to good (elderly: 0.39 to 0.41; caregivers: 0.47
to 0.61).

Thirty-one elderly clients were measured on the Berg Balance Scale, lab measures of postural
sway and clinical measures of balance and mobility. Correlations for sway were -0.55, clinical
measures -0.46 to -0.67, Tinetti balance subscale 0.91, Barthel mobility subscale 0.67, Up and Go
Test -0.76

Predictive
One hundred and thirteen elderly were followed for 12 months, and were classified as having 0,
1, =>2 falls during that time. A Berg Balance Scale of <45 was predictive of multiple falls.
Responsiveness
The Berg Balance Scale discriminated between subjects according to their use of mobility aids
(walker, cane, none). It was also found to differentiate between outcomes for groups of stroke
clients. At 12 weeks post-stroke, scores were highest for those at home, lowest for those still in
hospital and intermediate for clients in rehabilitation centres.

* Taken from: Physical Rehabilitation Outcome Measures, by Beverley Cole, Elspeth


Finch, Carolyn Gowland and Nancy Nayo © 1994. Published by: The Canadian
Physiotherapy Association.

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