BESTEST MINI-BEST BRIEF-BEST AND BBS: ABILITY TO IDENTIFY FALLS STATUS INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY

摘要

Objectives: To verify the ability of the Balance Evaluation Systems Test (BESTest), Mini-BESTest, Brief-BESTest and Berg Balance Scale (BBS) to identify institutionalized elderly falling. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study. Institutionalized elderly (n=39; aged 62–90 years; mean=78.26 [7.3] years) were recruited from a philanthropic nursing home of Sao Paulo City (Brazil). All participants were tested with BESTest, Mini-BESTest, Brief-BESTest, and BBS and the history of falls from a year ago was collected by the medical records. For the analysis, a falls status indicator was used and the sample was dichotomized in “Non-Faller” (participants who had no fall in the last year) and “Faller” (participants who had a fall or more in the last year). The sensitivity and specificity between the total score of the BESTest, Mini-BESTest, Brief-BESTest, and BBS was calculated based on the fall hazard indicator. The cut-off points were determined using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. The statistical significance of each analysis was verified by the area under the ROC curve (AUC) and by their respective 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results: All balance tests were able to identify falls status (AUC=0.63; 0.70; 0.78 and 0.75, BESTest, Mini-BESTest, Brief-BESTest, and BBS, respectively), the Brief-BESTest (sensitivity=94%, specificity=61%) and the BBS (sensitivity=94%, specificity=56%) had the higher ability. Conclusions: All balance tests are valuable to identify fall status in institutionalized elderly. The Brief-BESTest presented slightly higher ability to identify falls status in our sample.