Psychometric Properties of Persian Translated Version of Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC) in Arak Community-dwelling Older Adults

Balance deficiency, falls and fear of fall are important problems that can resulted in reversed health outcomes including decreased quality of life. The purpose of this study was surveying factor structure, validation, and reliability determination of Persian translated version of Activities-specific Balance Confidence scale in community-dwelling older adults of Arak city.
Research method was descriptive in form of psychometry. The statistic population was older adults of Arak in year 2012 and 308 subjects with mean age 69.38 years were selected availably. Data were collected by Persian translated version of Activities-specific Balance Confidence that is a 16-item scale and evaluates balance confidence in activities of daily living. Data were analyzed by Exploratory Factor Analysis. Test-retest and internal reliability were calculated by Pearson correlation coefficient and Chronbach’s Alpha. Data were analyzed with SPSS-16.
The findings resulted in extraction of one factor with eigenvalue over one that explained 82.89% of total variance. Test-retest reliability between 1 to 4 weeks and internal reliability (Chronbach’s alpha) were 0.82 and 0.98, respectively. Gutmann split-half correlation coefficient and intra-class correlation coefficient were calculated 95% and 85%, respectively.
Persian translated version of Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC-F) is a valid and reliable tool for Iranian community-dwelling older adults that can be used in clinical and research purpose.