Vestibular impairment can lead to disequilibrium and postural instability1 and can place an individual at an increased risk for falls. It is important that
health care providers screen at-risk patients for imbalance to mitigate fall risk.
The Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) is commonly used to evaluate ambulatory balance; however,
this measure lacks reliability in persons with vestibular dysfunction and has known
ceiling effects in this population.1 The Functional Gait Assessment (FGA) was developed from the DGI to increase its sensitivity
to dynamic instability, integrating more demanding task conditions and effectively
improving reliability in this population.2 Additionally, the instructions and operational definitions for each item on the FGA
were clarified to reduce the likelihood of administration error.3 The FGA takes less than 10 minutes to administer using items typically available
in a rehabilitation setting. No formal training is required to administer this measure.
The FGA demonstrates excellent concurrent validity with several other measures or
indicators commonly considered in individuals with vestibulopathy, including the Dizziness
Handicap Inventory and the number of falls a patient has experienced in the previous
4 weeks.2 The minimal detectable change value established for this measure is useful in clinical
decision-making to assess clinically significant changes in functional balance. This
Rehabilitation Measures Database summary provides a review of the psychometric properties
of the FGA in the vestibular population, including reliability, validity, minimum
detectable change, and interpretation of the results.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Archives of Physical Medicine and RehabilitationAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
Article info
Footnotes
Highlights From the Rehabilitation Measures Database
This content is provided as a service by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and is not peer reviewed by the Archives.
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.