Publication:

Comparison of mini-bestest and dynamic gait index for prediction of fall susceptibility in old individuals

Background Emphasis on early identification, prevention, and intervention of fall risk in elderly people is becoming increasingly important in the fields of physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Methods Various scales are currently used for assessment of balance and fall risk. We have selected, MiniBESTest and DGI for our present study. We compared scores of Mini-BESTest and DGI in 30 elderly subjects with mean age of 62.23±4.38yrs. These subjects included 17 completely normal individuals, whereas 13 subjects were having early clinical features of fall-related disorders. Example: Parkinsonism, vertigo and paresis.

Results The data indicated that Mini-BESTest is more superior than DGI to indicate the fall risk in normal elderly population. Similarly, in cases of paresis and Parkinsonism, results are indicating that Mini-BESTest is better suited than the DGI. But in cases of vertigo, the results indicate that DGI is more superior than Mini-BESTest.

Conclusions An interesting finding is that the DGI scale seems to be more superior in subjects having vertigo (Refer Table-4), which is to be verified by further studies in a larger sample. The point which justifies the above conclusion is that the DGI scale includes many items which test the vestibular apparatus.