Clinical measurement of sit-to-stand performance in people with balance disorders: validity of data for the Five-Times-Sit-to-Stand Test.
OBJECTIVE
People with balance disorders are characterized as having difficulty with transitional movements, such as the sit-to-stand movement. A valid and feasible tool is needed to help clinicians quantify the ability of people with balance disorders to perform transitional movements. The purpose of this study was to describe the concurrent and discriminative validity of data obtained with the Five-Times-Sit-to-Stand Test (FTSST). The FTSST was compared with the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC) and the Dynamic Gait Index (DGI).


METHODS
Eighty-one subjects without balance disorders and 93 subjects with balance disorders were recruited for the study. Each subject was asked to stand from a 43-cm-high chair 5 times as quickly as possible. The ABC and DGI scores were recorded.


RESULTS
Subjects with balance disorders performed the FTSST more slowly than subjects without balance disorders. Discriminant analysis demonstrated that the FTSST correctly identified 65% of subjects with balance dysfunction, the ABC identified 80%, and the DGI identified 78%. The ability of the FTSST to identify subjects with balance dysfunction was better for subjects younger than 60 years of age (81%).


CONCLUSIONS
The FTSST displays discriminative and concurrent validity properties that make this test potentially useful in clinical decision making, although overall the ABC and the DGI are better than the FTSST at discriminating between subjects with and subjects without balance disorders.
Whitney
Susan L
SL
Department of Physical Therapy, University of Pittsburgh, 6035 Forbes Tower, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. whitney@pitt.edu
Wrisley
Diane M
DM
Marchetti
Gregory F
GF
Gee
Michael A
MA
Redfern
Mark S
MS
Furman
Joseph M
JM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D020233:Gait Disorders, Neurologic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D004856:Postural Balance; D012372:ROC Curve; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015837:Vestibular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D014724:Vestibular Function Tests / Q000379:methods