Berg Balance Test for Predicting a Fall Risk in Older Adults Living at Home: A Preliminary Study on the Effect of Pre-Existing Health Conditions on Postural Balance

Elderly people worldwide have been facing a high risk of fall, which impact their health and quality of life. Once fall, it becomes difficult for elderlies to get back to their active lives. This presented study aims to assess postural balance of elderly individuals using the Berg balance test and to determine the correlation between the Berg balance score (BBS) with the individual’s health-related conditions. This research involved people aged over 40 years, living at home in Montreal metropolitan area. Participants were recruited via a variety of channels including associations working with elderlies, a university community and through a snowball sampling. Our balance tests were collected at participant’s home, the university’s laboratory as well as public locations within the community. To find the relationship between the BBS and the participant’s pre-existing medical conditions, Chi-square tests, with the level of significance of 0.90, were used. The results show the significant correlation between fall history and low BBS, and between vision disorders and low BBS, thereby highlight the importance of these factors to prevent falls in the elderly. From our study among active community-dwelling elderlies, BBS proved to be valuable for assessing balance by identifying those at high risk of falling based on their history of falls and probably vision disorders. This informs stakeholders to create appropriate preventive interventions to reduce the incidences of falls among the elderlies living independently at home.