Trial Outcomes & Findings for ActiveStep Comparative Effectiveness Trial (NCT NCT01006967)

Race and Ethnicity were not collected from any participant.

The Berg Balance Measure (Berg) was designed to test an elderly patient's level of balance. The test consists of 14 balance items that have been deemed safe for elderly patients to perform. The Berg is a task performance exam that takes about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. The test is scored while it is administered. Each of the independent items are scored on a five point ordinal scale where 0 indicates the patient's inability to perform the task and 4 represents independence; the individual points are then summed to achieve a total score (range 0 - 56). The higher the patient's score on the Berg the more independent the patient. The reported outcome is the change in the Berg between baseline and end of treatment.

The Dynamic Gait Index (DGI) is another instrument that was developed to assess the likelihood of falling in older adults and tests eight facets of gait. The DGI takes about 15 minutes and requires the following equipment: a Box (Shoebox); 2 Cones; Stairs; and a 20' walkway that is 15" wide. Each item is scored on a four-point ordinal scale, ranging from 0-3 where "0" indicates the lowest level of function and "3" the highest level of function, resulting in a total score of 0 to 24. The interpretation guidelines state that a score \< 19/24 is predictive of falls in the elderly while as score of \> 22/24 indicate safe walkers. The outcome reported is the change in the DGI between baseline and end-of-treatment.

The Activity-specific Balance Confidence scale (ABC) is a patient self-report measure tthat measures the subject's self-assessed confidence in being able to perform 16 specific activities without losing their balance or becoming unsteady. For each task (i.e. walking around the house, sweeping the floor, walking outside on an icy sidewalk) the subject indicates their level of confidence in doing the activity without losing their balance. For items the subject does not normally perform, they are asked to try and imagine how confident they would feel if they had to do the activity. For subjects who normally use a walking aid to do the specific activity, they are asked to rate their confidence as if they were using these supports. Each item is rated 0-100 for each item. To obtain the final score, the ratings are averaged across the 16 items to produce an overall score from 0-100 with higher scores indicated greater balance confidence.