OBJECTIVE Study 1 investigated the intraclass reliability and percent variance associated with each component within the traditional Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) protocol. Study 2 investigated the reliability of subsequent modifications of the BESS. DESIGN Prospective cross-sectional examination of the traditional and modified BESS protocols. SETTING Schools participating in Georgia ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Due to the high incidence of falls in people with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), the assessment of standing balance is a key component of physical therapist evaluation. This study investigated performance on clinical tests of standing balance in subjects with and without PD. SUBJECTS The subjects were 10 persons with PD who had a history of falls (age range = 60-8...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the associations among uncontrolled hypertension, orthostatic hypotension (OH), and standing balance impairment in the elderly hypertensive patients referred to comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA). METHODS In a cross-sectional study, a total of 176 elderly hypertensive patients who underwent CGA were divided into OH group (n=36) and non-OH group (n=140) according...

OBJECTIVES Assessment of the association of blood pressure measurements in supine and standing position after a postural change, as a proxy for blood pressure regulation, with standing balance in a clinically relevant cohort of elderly, is of special interest as blood pressure may be important to identify patients at risk of having impaired standing balance in routine geriatric assessment. MA...

A 6-wk group balance-training program was conducted with physically active older adults (based on American College of Sports Medicine requirements) to investigate the effect of dose-related static and dynamic balance-specific training. All participants, age 60-87 yr, continued their regular exercise program while adding balance training in 1 of 3 doses: three 20-min sessions/wk (n = 20), one 20...

BACKGROUND Risk of falls increases as age advances. Complaints of impaired balance are very common in the elderly age group. OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to investigate whether the subjective perception of impaired balance was associated with deficits in postural control (objective analysis) in elderly community-dwelling women. METHOD Static posturography was used in two group...

Postural sway during quiet stance is attenuated by actively maintained contact of the index finger with a stationary surface, even if the level of applied force (<1 N) cannot provide mechanical stabilization. In this situation, changes in force level at the fingertip lead changes in center of foot pressure by approximately 250 ms. These and related findings indicate that stimulation of the fing...

INTERVENTION AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We compared the responses of these older adults on a questionnaire battery used by the Established Populationls for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly (EPFSE) project, to performance on mobility tasks of graded difficulty. Responses to the EPESE battcry included: (1) whether assistance was required to perform seven Katz activities of daily living (ADL...