Assessment of Psychometric Properties of Various Balance Assessment Tools in Persons With Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy

Study Design Clinical measurement, cross-sectional, repeated-measures design. Background Persons with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) are known to have balance impairments. The psychometric properties of various balance assessment tools have not been evaluated in this population. Objective To examine the floor and ceiling effects, item difficulty and item discrimination index, internal consistency, reliability, and validity of the Balance Evaluation Systems Test (BESTest), Mini-BESTest, Brief BESTest, and Berg Balance Scale (BBS) in persons with CSM. Methods Seventy-two individuals with CSM were evaluated with the above balance scales. Thirty-two were assessed by a second rater on the same day to establish interrater reliability, and by the same rater 1 to 2 days later to assess test-retest reliability. Results Of the 4 balance tools, only the BBS showed a substantial ceiling effect (skewness, γ 0.8), with excellent test-retest (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] >0.80) and interrater reliability (ICC >0.80). In addition, all balance tests were strongly correlated with one another (ie, concurrent validity), and with the modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association score (ie, convergent validity). Their correlations with the Abbreviated Mental Test were low (ie, discriminant validity). All 4 balance tests could adequately identify fallers and users of mobility aids (area under the curve, >0.8) (ie, known-groups validity). Conclusion The Brief BESTest is the most preferred tool for persons with CSM because of its excellent reliability, validity, and short administration time, whereas the BBS is the least preferred due to its substantial ceiling effect. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2017;47(9):673-682. Epub 13 Jul 2017. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.7283.