Investigating Relationships between Balance Confidence and Balance Ability in Older Adults

Abstract

Increasing balance confidence in older individuals is important towards improving their quality of life and reducing activity avoidance. Here, we investigated if balance confidence (perceived ability) and balance performance (ability) in older adults were related to one another and would improve after balance training. The relationship of balance confidence in conjunction with balance performance for varied conditions (such as limiting vision, modifying somatosensory cues, and also base of support) was explored. We sought to determine if balance confidence and ability, as well as their relationship, could change after several weeks of training. Twenty-seven healthy participants were trained for several weeks during standing and walking exercises. In addition, seven participants with a higher risk of imbalance leading to falls (survivors of stroke) were also trained. Prior to and after training, balance ability and confidence were assessed via the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) and Activities Specific Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale, respectively. Both groups showed improvements in balance abilities (i.e., BESS errors significantly decreased after training). Balance confidence was significantly higher in the healthy group than in the stroke group; however, ABC results reflected that balance confidence did not significantly increase after training for each. The correlations between balance ability and balance confidence were explored. Encouragingly, healthy participants displayed a negative correlation between BESS errors and ABC (i.e., enhancements in balance confidence (increases in ABC Scale results) were related to improvements in balance ability (decreases in BESS errors)). For the stroke participants, despite improvements in balance ability, our results showed that there was no relation to balance confidence (i.e., no correlation between BESS errors and ABC) in this group.

Utility of Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) in evaluating a multicomponent exercise programme for community-dwelling pre-frail older adults

“… 29 For the older people, improving and maintaining balance is essential, as a lack of balance ability may contribute to falls and activity avoidance. 30 In the exercise intervention for older adults in the pre-frailty period, it is necessary to pay attention to the needs of the older adults to improve their balance ability or delay the deterioration of balance ability and strengthen the balance training in the intervention programme.…”

Test-Retest reliability and preliminary reliable change estimates for Sway Balance tests administered remotely in community-dwelling adults

“…Static balance and postural stability are commonly assessed following concussion in athletes ( 3 – 6 ), and this testing has other potential applications such as measuring functional performance in association with chronic ankle instability ( 11 , 12 ) or anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction ( 13 ). There might also be benefits in assessing static balance as part of one's routine health assessment ( 20 – 24 ), in evaluating risk of fall in older adults ( 24 , 26 ), or in relation to neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease ( 25 ). Research is needed to establish reliability and validity in older adults to inform testing in these populations.…”

“…Some normative data for the test have been published across the lifespan ( 8 – 12 ). The BESS is also used in research relating to chronic ankle instability ( 11 , 12 ) anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction ( 13 ), exercise-induced dehydration ( 14 ), exposure to toxins, such as diesel fuel exhaust ( 15 ), and in interventions to improve balance in youth athletes ( 16 – 18 ), adults who are obese ( 19 ), older adults ( 20 – 24 ), and older adults with Parkinson's disease ( 25 ). In a recent study, older adults who could not complete a simple 10-second one-leg balance stance had lower survival rates over a median of 7 years, even when controlling for age, sex, obesity, and clinical comorbidities, such as coronary artery disease, hypertension, and diabetes ( 26 ).…”

Investigating Biomechanical Postural Control Strategies in Healthy Aging Adults and Survivors of Stroke

“…The training involved eyes-open/-closed activities for walking exercises (forward and backward for regular and tandem walking, left and right side-stepping), foam exercises (standing, isolated leg exercises, squats, and walking on hard surface) on either dense or thick compliant foam, and walking over obstacles [22]. Participants wore a harness from a NaviGAITor robotic device (shown in Figure 1a) during training to safeguard them from any injury due to a potential fall, and, further, they were spotted by the experimenters for the duration of the training sessions.…”

“…either dense or thick compliant foam, and walking over obstacles [22]. Participants wore a harness from a NaviGAITor robotic device (shown in Figure 1a…”