Berg Balance Scale: inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the Spanish version with incomplete spinal cord injured subjects.

Freixes, Orestes; Passuni, Diego Alejandro; Buffetti, Eliana; Elizalde, Milagros; Lastiri, Francisco

STUDY DESIGN Cross sectional. OBJECTIVES To determine the inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of the Spanish version of the Berg Balance Scale with incomplete spinal cord injured subjects. SETTING CINER Rehabilitation Center. METHODS We administered and video recorded the Spanish version of the Berg Balance Scale to 20 incomplete SCI patients. Two raters scored the videos on two different occasions at least three weeks apart. We used intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and a confidence interval (CI) of 95% to evaluate the inter-rater and intra-rater (test-retest) reliability of the BBS total scores. RESULTS ICC values for inter-rater reliability at first and second observation were 0.99 (95% CI 0.97-1.00) and 0.99 (95% CI 0.99-1.00), respectively. Intra-rater ICC for rater 1 was 1.00 (95% CI 1.00-1.00) and for rater 2 was 1.00 (95% CI 0.99-1.00). All of them were excellent. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that the Spanish version of the Berg Balance Scale is a reliable tool to evaluate spinal cord injured patients' balance.