Background: Minimal detectable change (MDC) when assessing balance using the Biodex Balance System (BBS) in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) is currently unknown, limiting the interpretability of the scores.
Objective: To determine the MDC on the Anterior/Posterior Stability Index (APSI), Medial/Lateral Stability Index (MLSI), and Overall Stability Index (OSI) from postural stability and fall risk protocols of the BBS in patients with PD.
Design: This was a repeated-measures design (at a 1-week interval).
Setting: Strength training laboratory of a public university.
Patients: 46 patients with PD (men and women) at stages 2 and 3 (67.9 ± 7.4 years old) were assessed in the "on" state (fully medicated).
Methods: Patients performed three trials of 20 s for each protocol.
Main outcome measurements: Absolute and relative MDC (MDC%) calculated for APSI, MLSI, and OSI from the postural stability (stable condition) and fall risk protocols (unstable condition).
Results: For the postural stability, the MDC and MDC% were 0.26° and 17% for APSI, 0.41° and 21% for MLSI, and 0.22° and 12% for OSI, respectively. For the fall risk, the MDC and MDC% were 0.51° and 18% for APSI, 0.21° and 15% for MLSI, and 0.41° and 20% for OSI, respectively. These results were considered acceptable, despite indices with high MDC for MLSI (postural stability) and APSI (fall risk).
Conclusions: Patients with PD have more mediolateral and anteroposterior changes in the stable and unstable conditions, respectively. These abnormal balance strategies can occur principally due to postural instability of PD. However, our results demonstrated acceptable MDCs in both conditions in all of the assessed axes. Thus, BBS should be incorporated into the clinical evaluation to help therapists to determine if intervention-induced changes in balance are clinically significant or due to measurement error.
Level of evidence: II.
© 2019 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.