Assessment of sitting balance of patients with stroke undergoing inpatient rehabilitation

Accurate clinical assessment of sitting is required to develop appropriate treatment programs and evaluate outcomes, but no set tool for measuring sitting balance has been commonly accepted. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of the sitting balance items of the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the Clinical Outcome Variables Scale (COVS) to show a clinical change following rehabilitation of patients with subacute stroke. A retrospective audit of 51 patients with stroke who underwent inpatient rehabilitation was conducted. Frequency distributions were used to evaluate ceiling and floor effects. Change in sitting balance was evaluated by using the Wilcoxon test, and effect size was calculated. The results showed that the mean age of the sample was 72 (SD=11.3) years, 57% were males, and 52% were admitted for rehabilitation within 30 days of their stroke. Frequency distributions showed significant ceiling effect only for the BBS sitting item. There was a significant change in the COVS sitting scores (effect size=0.46; p < 0.001), but not for the BBS (effect size=0.22; p=0.102). The results of this study suggest that the sitting item of the COVS may provide a measure of sitting balance for the inpatient stage of rehabilitation after stroke.