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Reliability and validity of the Persian translation of Berg Balance Scale in Parkinson disease

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Abstract

Purpose

Parkinson disease (PD) is one of the common causes of imbalance, and the balance assessment is necessary for treatment and rehabilitation of these patients. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS) has been the main instrument used to evaluate balance impairment. The purpose of this study is to investigate reliability and validity of the Persian translation of BBS in Parkinson disease.

Methods

One hundred PD patients (with mean age of 56.8 ± 15.13 years) were included. Interrater reliability was measured with the Kappa statistics and interclass correlation coefficients.

Results

The mean values of the BBS scored by the two evaluators were 47/85 ± 11/09 and 48/03 ± 10/90, respectively. The mean of Kappa coefficient between two examiners was 0.76, which was between 0.38 and 0.93 for various items. The total score recorded by both examiners, interclass correlation coefficient, was 0.99, which is excellent. Cronbach’s alpha for Iranian version of BBS was 0.92, which shows the excellent reliability of the questionnaire (0.62–0.9 for all items).

Conclusion

The Persian version of the BBS has excellent interrater reliability and internal consistency for the assessment of PD patients.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, capital of Iran. We gratefully acknowledge the dedicated efforts of the investigators, the coordinators and the volunteer patients who participated in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuromusculoskeletal Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Arash Babaei-Ghazani, Bijan Forogh & Tannaz Ahadi

  2. Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Hosein Mohammadi

  3. Movement Disorder Fellowship, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Gholam Ali Shahidi & Seyed Amir Hasan Habibi

  4. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran

    Bina Eftekharsadat

Authors
  1. Arash Babaei-Ghazani
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  2. Hosein Mohammadi
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  3. Gholam Ali Shahidi
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  4. Seyed Amir Hasan Habibi
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  5. Bijan Forogh
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  6. Tannaz Ahadi
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  7. Bina Eftekharsadat
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bina Eftekharsadat.

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Statement of human and animal rights

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Babaei-Ghazani, A., Mohammadi, H., Shahidi, G.A. et al. Reliability and validity of the Persian translation of Berg Balance Scale in Parkinson disease. Aging Clin Exp Res 29, 857–862 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-016-0682-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-016-0682-7

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