Berg Balance Scale Case Study

As the older person population increases in size, the percentage of fall risk will also likely to increase as a consequences reduction in balance. Age-associated functional declines in muscle strength and the sensory systems, in addition to several other issues, such as cognitive function may contribute to the reductions of balance in older person. There are many screening test widely available that can be used to test balance in older person. According to Mancini and Horak (2010), the primary reasons to conduct this test are to identify whether or not a balance problem exists and to determine the underlying cause of the balance problem. The most test that is been used in older person is Berg Balance Scale (BBS). According to Muir et al. (2010), “BBS was developed to measure balance among older people with impairment in balance function by assessing the performance of functional tasks”. BBS consists of 14 balance tasks scored on a scale of 0 to 4, where 0 indicates the inability to perform a task
MMSE is a tool that can be used to assess mental status. MMSE tests a number of different mental abilities, including a person's memory, attention and language. It has 11 questions that tests five area of cognitive function which are orientation, registration, attention and calculation, recall, and language. The maximum score is 30 while score that lower than 23 is considered having cognitive impairment (Kurlowicz, n.d.). MMSE can be used to assess balance because a study conducted by Merriman et al. (2014) stated that cognitive function such as attention and executive function are also necessary for balance control. “An inability to maintain postural stability while standing or under other conditions that challenge balance and require active cognitive input, such as when avoiding obstacles or updating spatial representations during navigation has been associated with a higher occurrence of falling” (Merriman et al.