Drnach M, Tucker R, Swallie R, Campagna A, McClanahan J; Wheeling Jesuit University, Department of Physical Therapy, Wheeling, WV, USA. drnach@wju.edu.

PURPOSE: Balance and coordination are frequently measured in physical therapy; however, many of the current clinical methods are subjective. The purpose of this research study is to correlate clinical measures for impairments in balance and coordination using the Berg Balance Scale and the O’Sullivan Coordination Assessment. SUBJECTS: Thirteen subjects between the ages of 61-85 years were selected through convenience sampling from a local senior citizen residential facility. The average age of participants was 70.8 years. The group consisted of nine females and four males. METHODS: Each subject underwent a clinical assessment of balance and coordination. A level of impairment was assigned by a physical therapist based on functional definitions developed by a group of 40 health care professionals (physical and occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, certified rehabilitation nurses and restorative nurses). These subjects were then administered the Berg Balance Test, and the O’Sullivan Coordination Assessment which were conducted in a blinded manner by two other researchers. ANALYSIS: Analysis was performed with SPSS 11.5. A bivariate Spearman correlation was used to interpret the data. RESULTS: No correlation was found between the clinical assessment of balance and the Berg test (r = 0.796), nor was there a direct relationship between the clinical assessment of coordination and the O’Sullivan Coordination Test (r = 0.103). CONCLUSIONS: No correlation could be established between the levels assigned during clinical assessment of balance and the Berg Balance Scale. Furthermore, a subject’s reported impairment in coordination fails to demonstrate a relationship to a subject’s performance on a standard physical therapy test. This study demonstrates the importance of administering a standardized test in the examination of a person’s balance or coordination. FUNDING SOURCE: None.

Copyright 2004 by the American Physical Therapy Association

Reprint Information
Requests for reprints should be directed to the corresponding author of the article. Students and other academic customers may receive permission to reprint copyrighted material from Physical Therapy by contacting the Copyright Clearance Center Inc, 222 Rosewood Dr, Danvers, MA 01923. Similar inquiries by all others should be made to the APTA Editorial Office, Attn: Physical Therapy.