Assessing the fall risks of community-dwelling stroke survivors using the Short-form Physiological Profile Assessment (S-PPA)

INTRODUCTION: Fall is common after stroke. The Short-form Physiological Profile Assessment (S-PPA) was developed to assess the fall risks and underlying physiological factors, and it has been used in healthy older adults and older adults with stroke. This study aimed to establish the psychometric properties of the S-PPA among cognitively intact and ambulant community-dwelling older adults with stroke. METHODS: The S-PPA, Chinese version of the Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC-C) scale and 3 balance measures, namely the Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Timed “Up & Go” (TUG) and Functional Reach Test (FRT), were administered. Inter- and intra-rater reliability were assessed at baseline and after a 1-week interval, respectively. The validity of the S-PPA was assessed through correlations with balance measures and the ABC-C and by comparing the S-PPA scores between the stroke and healthy groups and between fallers and non-fallers in the stroke group. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to assess the ability of balance measures to distinguish fall status in the stroke group. RESULTS: The S-PPA yielded good inter-rater (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.83) and moderate intra-rater reliability (ICC = 0.74), correlated significantly with the 3 balance measures (rho = 0.49–0.70) and ABC-C (rho = 0.35) and revealed significant differences between stroke survivors and controls and between stroke survivors with and without a fall history. However, the ROC analysis revealed that the S-PPA had a poor ability to distinguish the fall statuses of community-dwelling stroke survivors. CONCLUSIONS: The S-PPA is reliable and valid for evaluating fall risks but cannot adequately distinguish the fall statuses of stroke survivors.