The sensitivity and specificity of the Falls Efficacy Scale and the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale for hemiplegic stroke patients

[Purpose] This study attempted to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of the Falls Efficacy Scale (FES) and the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC) for community residents with hemiplegic stroke. [Subjects and Methods] The FES and the ABC data were collected for a sample of 99 community-dwelling hemiplegic stroke patients in Korea. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the cut-off values, and the area under the curve (AUC) was used to assess the overall accuracy of each balance test. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was employed to identify the predictors of falling. [Results] The cut-off value was 63.75 in the ABC and 66.50 in the FES. The sensitivity and specificity of the ABC was 41.3% and 92.0%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the FES was 69.8% and 63.9%, respectively. The AUC was 0.691 for the ABC and 0.678 for the FES. The ABC explained 28.0% of the variance in the experience of falls. [Conclusion] The ABC has the ability to determine non-fallers, and it was a good explanatory factor of experience of falls.