Reliability Test of Korean Version of Berg Balance Scale

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to translate the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) to the Korean version (K-BBS) and to evaluate its reliability. METHOD: With the agreement of Katherine Berg, the original editor of the BBS, two physiatrists and three physical therapists had translated the English version of BBS into Korean (K-BBS). This was back-translated into English by a Korean-American physiatrist fluent in English. After a 2- hour K-BBS education course, the video recorded K-BBS of 18 stroke patients were reviewed by nine examiners (four physiatrists and five physical therapists) to assess the inter- rater and the intra-rater reliability. Kendall's correlation coefficient and Pearson's correlation coefficient were computed to assess the intra-rater and test-retest reliability, respectively. RESULTS: The inter-rater reliability was 0.97 at 2 separate evaluations with an interval of 10 days (p<0.05). The intra- rater reliability was 0.95 (p<0.05) in the physiatrist group and 0.97 (p<0.05) in the physical therapist group. CONCLUSION: We recommend that the Korean version of the Berg balance scale is a reliable instrument to be used in balance assessment of stroke patients.

Relationship between Berg Balance Scale and Functional Independence Measure in Stroke Patients

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship of the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and Functional Independence Measure (FIM) in stroke patients. METHOD: Ninety-two subjects with the first attack of stroke were enrolled to assess BBS, FIM at admission and discharge following rehabilitation programs. We divided subjects into three groups by severity of BBS at the first evaluation. Group I was low BBS (score or =43). The admission BBS and the admission FIM, and the admission BBS and the discharge FIM were compared, and also the relationship between them were assessed at the admission and/or discharge. RESULTS: Admission and discharge BBS of all three groups were significantly different, respectively (p <0.01). Admission and discharge FIM of all three groups were also significantly different (p <0.01). There was highly correlated with admission BBS and admission FIM (r=0.529, p <0.01), and moderately correlated between admission BBS and discharge FIM (r=0.43, p <0.05). Also there was high relationship between BBS gain and FIM gain (r=0.516, p <0.01). CONCLUSION: These results indicated that balance function could affect functional ability during rehabilitation programs and BBS was a useful tool to predict discharge functional status in hemiplegic subjects with stroke.