Journey of non-traditional student in OTA: Who's at risk for falls in SNF?

Who's at risk for falls in SNF? ABC Confidence Indicator

On FW II rotation I have notice that some patients are worried about falling and I had a couple of clients complete the ABC confidence indicator - but what I noticed was the test did not give me any information on how to increase their confidence.

I was also a little concern because this is a smaller town and some of the questions didn't seem to apply. There is no escalators any around this area nor are they any malls, so I wasn't so sure how well the clients could relate to all the questions. So, I did a little research and discovered there was also a shorten test and I was excited until I read the questions... again 2 of the 6 questions were about escalators.

ABC Confidence indicator 16 questions.

The Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale*

For each of the following activities, please indicate your level of self- confidence by choosing a corresponding number from the following rating scale:

0% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100% no confidence completely confident

“How confident are you that you will not lose your balance or become unsteady when you...

...walk around the house? ____%
...walk up or down stairs? ____%
...bend over and pick up a slipper from the front of a closet floor
____%
...reach for a small can off a shelf at eye level? ____%
...stand on your tiptoes and reach for something above your head?
____%
...stand on a chair and reach for something? ____%
...sweep the floor? ____%
...walk outside the house to a car parked in the driveway? ____%
...get into or out of a car? ____%
...walk across a parking lot to the mall? ____%
...walk up or down a ramp? ____%
...walk in a crowded mall where people rapidly walk past you?
____%
...are bumped into by people as you walk through the mall?____%
... step onto or off an escalator while you are holding onto a railing?
____%
... step onto or off an escalator while holding onto parcels such that
you cannot hold onto the railing? ____%
...walk outside on icy sidewalks? ____%

*Powell, LE & Myers AM. The Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale. J Gerontol Med Sci 1995; 50(1): M28-34

There is also ...

The Short Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC-6) Scale

For each of the following activities, please indicate your level of self-confidence by choosing a corresponding number from the following rating scale:

0% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100% no confidence completely confident

“How confident are you that you will not lose your balance or become unsteady when you...

...stand on your tiptoes and reach for something above your head? ____%
...stand on a chair and reach for something? ____%
...are bumped into by people as you walk through the
mall?____%
... step onto or off an escalator while you are holding onto a
railing? ____%
... step onto or off an escalator while holding onto parcels
such that you cannot hold onto the railing? ____%
...walk outside on icy sidewalks? ____%

* Peretz, C., Herman, T., Hausdorff, J.M., Giladi, N., 2006. Assessing fear of falling: can a short version of the Activities-specific Balance Confidence scale be useful? Mov. Disord. 21, 2101–2105.

5. Conclusion

These results not only indicate that the ABC-6 is a valid and reliable measure of balance confidence in community-dwelling older adults, but also that the short scale shows stronger relationships to falls than does the ABC-16. The ABC-6 may be a more useful balance confidence assessment tool than the ABC-16 in busy clinical or research settings, where timely, valid, and reliable assessments of balance confidence and screenings for balance impairments and falls risk assessment measures are necessary.

Retrieved from website:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2883646/ on February 6, 2013.

Journey of non-traditional student in OTA

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Who's at risk for falls in SNF?

Who's at risk for falls in SNF? ABC Confidence Indicator

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