Correlating the Berg Balance Scale and the Wii Balance Board in Reducing Fall Risk upon Elderly Patients with Non-Pathological Pain
Item
- Title
- Correlating the Berg Balance Scale and the Wii Balance Board in Reducing Fall Risk upon Elderly Patients with Non-Pathological Pain
- Author(s)
- Batt, E
- Abstract
- Background: Falls affect 1 in 3 adults at the age of 65 which increases to half of the population at 80 years of age. As a consequence of this the NHS is estimated to spend £2 billion on fractures and unaddressed fall hazards alone. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS) is a well- established assessment that will be correlated to the Wii Balance Board (WBB). The WBB is an up and coming assessment derived from a household gaming device to establish whether the WBB is a consistent measure of balance within a clinical environment. Objective: To record outcome measures of the symptomatic patient population using the BBS and the WBB. To answer the research question ‘do the two balance assessments correlate?’. Design: Observational study in a repeated measures form. Methods: Participants between the ages of 50-80 without pathological pain were recruited from the European School of Osteopathy. The participants’ baseline characteristics were collected and then they completed the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the Wii Balance Board (WBB) fall risk assessment. Data was then analysed and correlated using Analyse IT. Results: Data from 40 symptomatic participants were captured. The mean BBS score was 0.97 (SD 0.03) and the mean WBB was 0.28 (SD 0.17). A significant correlation was discovered between the BBS and WBB obtaining p value =0.0001. Whilst the baseline characteristics of participants showed insignificant data, there was a significant correlation between fall risk and hip pain within both assessments (WBB p= 0.19 and BBS p= 0.046). Whilst age was a significant contribution to the outcome only in the BBS (p=0.0001). Discussion: The significant results are supported within the current literature suggesting that the WBB is a valuable measure of balance and an important factor in influencing patient health in the future. The absence of significance in the baseline characteristics effect on the balance assessments suggests further studies need a larger sample size in order to get a true representative. Conclusion: Results show that the WBB and the BBS correlate therefore, suggesting the WBB can be used as a reliable measure to assess fall risk within manual therapy. Further research is needed into the effects of location of pain on the balance assessments.
- presented at
- European School of Osteopathy
- Date Accepted
- 2020
- Date Submitted
- 28.10.2020 18:08:17
- Type
- osteo_thesis
- Language
- English
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 16648
- Inst-Identifier
- 1229
- Keywords
- Berg Balance Scale, Fall Risk, Wii Balance Board, Community Dwelling Older Adults
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Batt, E, “Correlating the Berg Balance Scale and the Wii Balance Board in Reducing Fall Risk upon Elderly Patients with Non-Pathological Pain”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed May 2, 2025, https://www.osteopathic-research.org/s/orw/item/207