Balance in chronic traumatic brain injury: correlations between clinical measures and a self-report measure.

The sample was a convenience group from a larger randomized trial, so it may not represent people with chronic TBI more broadly. Participants were community-dwelling adults who were ambulating without assistance but had ongoing balance deficits, so the paper says little about people who are not ambulating without assistance. The paper described the sample as having CB&M scores of 75 or less, but also stated that people with CB&M scores less than 75 were screened out, so the exact score cut-off is unclear. The sample was mostly white and male, with some level of college education, which may not match the wider TBI population. Participants completed a long testing battery in one session, and the authors noted fatigue could have affected scores. The BESTest has not been validated in TBI, so its relationship to the ABC and CB&M should be interpreted cautiously. The study was cross-sectional, so it reported associations between measures at one time and did not test whether any measure predicts outcomes or responds to treatment.

The publication types list research support from the U.S. government Public Health Service. The supplied text does not include an author conflict-of-interest declaration.

Do not use the ABC alone to decide how impaired a patient with chronic TBI is. It was positively associated with the CB&M, but the study was a cross-sectional correlation analysis in a convenience sample of people with ongoing balance deficits.