title: Psychometric properties of the Balance Computerized Adaptive Test in residents in long-term care facilities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To validate the psychometric properties and efficiency of the Balance Computerized Adaptive Testing (Balance CAT) when applied to residents in long-term care (LTC) facilities.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cohort study was conducted in central Taiwan. The Balance CAT, the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), and the Barthel Index (BI) were administered to each participant with the ability to follow simple instructions by a trained rater in two days. The Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was used to determine the concurrent validity of the Balance CAT. ANOVA and post hoc analysis were employed to investigate the discriminative ability of the Balance CAT. The paired t test was used to validate the efficiency.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 120 participants completed assessments of the Balance CAT, the BBS, and the Barthel Index (BI). The Pearson's r between the scores of the Balance CAT and the BBS was 0.90. Groups with different levels of dependence had significantly different mean scores of the Balance CAT. The mean IRT reliability of the Balance CAT scores was 0.93. The mean administration time of the Balance CAT was about 28% of that of the BBS, and the mean number of items used in the Balance CAT was 3.4.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Balance CAT had excellent concurrent and discriminative validity, reliability, and efficiency in residents of LTC facilities. These results indicate that the Balance CAT is a sound and practical measure for assessing the balance function of residents of LTC facilities.
authors.affiliation: School of Occupational Therapy, Chung Shan Medical University, Occupational Therapy Room, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taiwan; Department of Business Administration, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. Electronic address: wenshian.lu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Wen-Shian
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Business Administration, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Bella Ya-Hui
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Lien
authors.affiliation: School of Occupational Therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taiwan; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Ching-Ling
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hsieh
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008297:Male; D010820:Physicians; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013624:Taiwan
keywords: Balance; Computerized adaptive testing; Long-term care