Original articleDevelopment and Validation of the Balance Outcome Measure for Elder Rehabilitation
Section snippets
Methods
This study was conducted in 3 phases.
Phase 1
Responses to the phase 1 survey were received from 16 of the 22 QRPN member sites contacted. Eight tests (step test, TUG test, FRT, static standing with eyes closed and feet together, static tandem stance, single-leg stance, standing with feet together and eyes open, ten-meter walk test) were currently used by at least 11 of the 16 sites. One site responded that they would not be willing to use 2 of the tests (static tandem stance, single-leg stance) as a part of their standard practice. From
Discussion
The BOOMER is a new measure of standing balance impairment designed specifically for practical implementation in elder rehabilitation health care settings. We contend that the BOOMER balances the competing needs of a tool to adequately sample and scale a range of items to ensure the construct validity of the instrument while also being practically applicable for both clinical and research settings.
Establishing the validity of a measurement tool can be viewed as an ongoing process requiring many
Conclusions
Future research is required to investigate other clinometric properties of the BOOMER. Comparison to other balance scales that provide a global measure of balance, such as the Berg Balance Scale, is necessary to further understand the construct validity of the BOOMER. The resource requirements and patient burden for completing these alternative measures should also be considered in these comparisons. The sensitivity to change of the BOOMER should be investigated in comparison to other scales,
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Supported by the University of Queensland New Staff Research Fund.
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the author(s) or upon any organization with which the author(s) is/are associated.