Persian Translation and Test-retest Reliability of the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale in Iranian Chronic Stroke

Falling is a common problem after stroke that occurs following the physical and psychological problems. Psychological factors such as reduce of self-efficacy in maintain balance could have an equal or even greater contribution than physical problems in falling. Therefore, having a suitable tool with acceptable repeatability seems to be necessary for evaluation of individual confidence in balance in prevention and rehabilitation programs. The aim of this study is Persian translation and investigation of the test-retest reliability of the Persian version of Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) scale in chronic stroke.
Material and The translation was done according to International Quality of Life Assessment procedure. Then, the Persian version of the ABC scale evaluated twice with 1 week interval by an expert occupational therapist on 62 patients with chronic stroke in Tehran city. The reliability if the scale was determined by internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficients); and test-retest reliability (Intraclass correlation coefficient, Pearson coefficient, standard errors of measurement; and minimum detectable change).
Content face validity of the Persian version for all questions of this scale showed good to excellent. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.97 in the first and second evaluation which indicates the excellent the internal consistency of this scale. The relative reliability total score of the scale was very excellent (0.97) in test-retest. Standard errors of measurement with 68% confidence were obtained 0.96 which is excellent. Furthermore, Pearson coefficient was in range of 0.86-0.97 in the investigation of the test-retest agreement for each item. Minimum detectable change was calculated 2.66.
The result of this study indicated that the Persian version of the ABC scale has excellent test-retest reliability in Iranian chronic stroke and its minimum detectable change is acceptable.