Association between Berg Balance, Physiological Profile Assessment and physical activity, physical function and body composition: A cross-sectional study

Falls are of great concern to older adults and costly to the health system. In addition the relationship between falls risk and falls risk predictor characteristics is complex. Objective: This study aimed to explore the relationship between two objective fall-risk measures tools, the Physiological Profile Assessment and the Berg Balance Scale and to determine how an individual’s sex, level of physical function, health-related and body composition characteristics impact these objective falls risk measures. Design: A cross-sectional, observational study. Participants: 245 community-dwelling older adults (M age=68.12 years, SD=6.21; 69.8% female). Measurements: Participants were assessed for falls-risk (Physiological Profile Assessment and the Berg Balance Scale), physical activity, physical functional and body composition characteristics. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated to examine bivariate relationships and hierarchical multiple linear regression modelling was used to estimate the contribution of each predictor in explaining variance in falls-risk. Results: In females, there was a weak association between the two objective falls-risk measures (r =-0.17 p