Developing a Rapid Assessment Method to Estimate Berg Balance Scale Score of Elderly People

To prevent falls, many experts are committed to studying the balance of risk factors and assessment methods fall. Berg Balance Scale (BBS) is a clinical assessment method that most commonly used yet its characteristic of subjective and time-consuming may the consequence in different results. The purpose of this study is to use the force platform system parameters and measuring the amount of income derived factors information and related research of BBS findings and to explore the possibility of subjective and objective information to assess the assistance results. Thirty-eight elderly adults residing at the Tai Shun Senior Centre react to sit-to-stand (STS) action on the force platform with the ergonomic chair. Thereafter, 12 parameters recorded or derived from the recording of the force platforms on measured operation time and the change of force data, then assess the results of BBS for correlation analysis. The results show that the relevance of BBS and force-related parameters is lower than the relevance of BBS and time-related parameters. Whereas, Ls - seatoff (the duration from the onset of leg to the time of seatoff) has high correlation with BBS results. This achievement can be an effective initial assessment of early warning on the results of BBS elderly people’s ability to, thus reducing subjective measurement results of possible bias.