Association between Berg Balance, Physiological Profile Assessment and Physical Activity, Physical Function and Body Composition: A Cross-sectional Study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Falls are of great concern to older adults and costly to the health system. In addition the relationship between falls risk and falls risk predictor characteristics is complex. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the relationship between two objective fall-risk measures tools, the Physiological Profile Assessment and the Berg Balance Scale and to determine how an individual's sex, level of physical function, health-related and body composition characteristics impact these objective falls risk measures. DESIGN: A cross-sectional, observational study. PARTICIPANTS: 245 community-dwelling older adults (M age=68.12 years, SD=6.21; 69.8% female). MEASUREMENTS Participants were assessed for falls-risk (Physiological Profile Assessment and the Berg Balance Scale), physical activity, physical functional and body composition characteristics. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated to examine bivariate relationships and hierarchical multiple linear regression modelling was used to estimate the contribution of each predictor in explaining variance in falls-risk. RESULTS: In females, there was a weak association between the two objective falls-risk measures (r =-0.17 p <0.05). The number of falls in the previous 12 months explained 6% of variance in Physiological Profile Assessment scores, with bone density of the lumbar spine contributing a further 1%. In males and females, variance in the Berg Balance Scale showed that age (25%) and physical function (16% for females, 28% for males) contributed significantly to the explaining variance in the falls-risk measure. CONCLUSION: Sex differences are apparent and as such males and females should be assessed (and potentially treated) differently with regards to falls risk. Results indicate that both falls risk assessment tools measure aspects of balance but are not interchangeable. The Berg Balance Scale may be more discriminative in older, less functioning adults and the Physiological Profile Assessment is more useful in assessing falls risk in females.