Amna Anwar, Fatima Waheed, Asha Javaid, Idrees Ahmed Zahoor, Arshad Nawaz Malik, Roohi Abbas.
Normative Values of Berg Balance Scale and Timed Up and Go Test in Elderly Females; a Descriptive Study.
Healer J Physiotherap Rehab Jan ;3(6):617-26.

Background: Falling is common and repetitive issue among the older population and is considered to be one of the most significant reasons that influence their activities of daily living. The Berg balance scale has been used to find out the risk of falling for a very long time and is associated with calculating the frequency of falls. Objective: To determine the normative values of the Berg balance scale and timed up and go test among elderly females. Methods: In this descriptive study, a sample size of 350 elderly females aged between 60 to 80 years were recruited in this study to formulate the normative values of the Berg balance scale and timed up and go test. Elderly females who had a history of repetitive falls, passing ischemic attacks and strokes, neurological and cognitive disorders, females on wheelchairs and having central nervous system neoplasms were excluded from this current study. The data for this entire research was collected from the Punjab province of Pakistan. Age, body mass index and number of children they gave birth to were considered as the major factors that influenced their scores on the Berg balance scale and timed up and go test. The mean and standard deviation of both tools was measured and compared between the western and Pakistani population. Results: The average timed up-and-go score was found to be 13.082 which ranged from 8.1 to 23 while the Berg balance scale score was found to be 48.35 which ranged from 38 to 55. For the Berg balance scale score prediction, age played a role of a huge percentage of 85.26% while in the case of predicting timed up and go score, body mass index played the most significant role of up to 35%. Conclusion: This current study concludes that the percentage effect of body mass index in defining the time up-and-go test score increases with increasing age. A negative correlation between the Berg balance scale and the timed up-and-go test was found. The number of children they gave birth to did not affect their score on the Berg balance scale and time up-and-go test performance.

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