title: A prospective study of the responsiveness of the original and the short form Berg Balance Scale in people with stroke.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The study aim was to examine the responsiveness of the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and that of its short form (SFBBS) at both the individual person level and the group level.
  
  
  METHODS
  A repeated-measurements design.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hospital and home setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with stroke.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Totals of 226, 202, and 168 patients with stroke were assessed with the BBS at 14, 30, and 90 days after stroke, respectively. The SFBBS data were extracted from the patients' responses on the BBS. At the group level, the BBS and the SFBBS had sufficient and similar responsiveness. For the Rasch scores, the effect sizes of the three change scores for the BBS and the SFBBS, respectively, had similar ranges between 0.38 and 0.88 and between 0.39 and 0.85, respectively. The standardized response means of the three change scores for the BBS and the SFBBS ranged from 0.74 to 1.33 and from 0.72 to 1.13, respectively. At the individual person level, the BBS detected significant balance improvement in about twice as many patients as the SFBBS detected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The responsiveness of the BBS at the individual person level was better than that of the SFBBS in patients with stroke. The BBS is recommended as an outcome measure to better detect changes in individual patients.
authors.affiliation: School of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kuan-Lin
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan Research Center for Psychological and Educational Testing, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yei-Tai
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: School of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wan-Hui
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Center for Teacher Education, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Cheng-Te
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Center for Teacher Education, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ching-Lin
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.affiliation: School of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan clhsieh@ntu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Ching-Lin
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hsieh
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013624:Taiwan; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Individual-person-level responsiveness; Rasch analysis; outcome measurement; short form Berg Balance Scale; significance of change; stroke