Identifying Future Fallers: It's Not Black and White

Participants: Susan W Muir, BSc, BScPT, and Leland E Dibble, PT, PhD, ATC. Moderator: Rebecca L Craik, PT, PhD, FAPTA

Files in this Data Supplement:

• Discussion Podcast - Muir and Dibble discuss the approaches they took to predict future falls with the goal of providing intervention and reducing the number of fall-related injuries.

  "The original Berg Balance Scale, given the range of scores...was not intended to be a dichotomous score. It doesn't make much sense statistically or clinically to take a robust picture of a gradient of fall risk and dilute it down to yes or no or black or white."

  "It was a misinterpretation of the original validation paper."

  "They go out and they fall and have an injury. We felt that those people were misdiagnosed."

  "We don't necessarily need a new test, we just need a new paradigm."

  "This is not a single-cause disorder"

  The discussion centers around the following articles:

  Dibble LE, Christensen J, Ballard DJ, Foreman KB. Diagnosis of fall risk in Parkinson disease: an analysis of individual and collective clinical balance test interpretation. Phys Ther. 2008;88:323-332.

  Muir SW, Berg K, Chesworth B, Speechley M. Use of the Berg Balance Scale for predicting multiple falls in community dwelling elderly people: a prospective study. Phys Ther. 2008;88:449-459.

  Running time: 16:22 (7.49 MB)