Retracted: Test‐Retest Reliability of Dynamic Balance Performance‐Based Measures Among Adults With a Unilateral Lower‐Limb Amputation

Abstract

III.

Using Clinical Balance Tests to Assess Fall Risk among Established Unilateral Lower Limb Prosthesis Users: Cutoff Scores and Associated Validity Indices

“…Each balance instrument has demonstrated acceptable levels of validity 15,16,[21][22][23] and/or reliability (i.e. ICC range .70 -.99) 15,22,23,[25][26][27]41 among LLP users.…”

“…Five clinical balance instruments, the ABC Scale, 20 the TUG, 18 the FSST, 19 the BBS, 17 and the NBWT 16 were administered and scored according to the developers' instructions (Appendix 1). Each balance instrument has demonstrated acceptable levels of validity 15,16,[21][22][23] and/or reliability (ie, intraclass correlation coefficient range .70-.99) 15,22,23,[25][26][27]41 among LLP users.…”

“…1 The study sample also consisted of a larger percentage of traumatic LLP users (ie, 62.5%) than is reported in the literature (ie, 17%-60.2%), 24,[54][55][56][57][58] potentially limiting the generalization of study results. Although this is a challenge in most, 15,23,25,66,67 but not all 8,21,[68][69][70] research involving LLP users, future efforts to include a larger proportion of dysvascular LLP users is required to increase generalization of study results. The mean age of our sample, 48.7 years, was slightly younger than that reported in larger, national studies of individuals with lower limb amputation (ie, mean age from 50 to 55), [54][55][56]58 , yet the range of ages studied, 24 to 70, is consistent with those prior studies.…”

“…Step Test (FSST) 19 , and Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale 20 . A number of studies have assessed the validity and reliability of these instruments among LLP users 15,16,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27] , but cutoff scores to infer fall risk have only been established for transtibial prosthesis users with limited prosthetic experience (i.e., 6 months of prosthetic use) 21 . Clinicians therefore, lack the necessary information to This article is protected by copyright.…”

“…15,16 Central to this barrier is a scarcity of LLP user-specific cutoff scores and validity indices for contemporary clinical balance instruments such as the Berg balance scale (BBS), 17 timed up and go (TUG), 18 four square step test (FSST), 19 and activities-specific balance confidence (ABC) scale. 20 A number of studies have assessed the validity and reliability of these instruments among LLP users, 15,16,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27] but cutoff scores to infer fall risk have been established only for transtibial prosthesis users with limited prosthetic experience (ie, 6 months of prosthetic use). 21 Clinicians, therefore, lack the necessary information to assess fall risk among individual patients within the larger LLP user population (ie, established transtibial and transfemoral prosthesis users).…”