A Comparative Study of Timed Up and Go Test and Tinetti Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment in Predicting Falls in Hemiparetic Stroke Patients

Abstract

Hemiparesis following stroke is the most frequent cause of adult disability. Falls in stroke survivors are a consequence of stroke related locomotor deficits or balance deficits or gait disturbances. Falls are common following stroke but knowledge about predicting future fallers is lacking. The purpose of this study was to compare Timed Up and Go test (TUG) scores and Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment (POMA) scores for predicting falls in Hemiparetic patients with stroke. Hemiparetic Patients with stroke of duration of 3 months or more prior to the study enrollment were conveniently selected. TUG test was conducted first where the patient was asked to walk for a total distance of 3 m. After performing this test, POMA was performed by each subject. Time allotted for completing the two tests was 30 min for each subject with adequate rest time. After recording the scores for each test, a follow up was done for six months. A log book was given to each subject for reporting the number of falls for each month. The number of falls for each subject was correlated with TUG test and POMA separately. To conclude, we can say that there is significant difference between the Timed Up and Go test and Tinetti’s Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment score on prediction of fall in Hemiparetic stroke patients and that TUG is much better predictor than POMA. Keywords: Hemiparesis, TUG test, Tinetti’s POMA, Falls, t-test, ROC