Reliability of the Chinese version of the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale

To translate the Activities-specific Balance Confidence (ABC) Scale into a Chinese version and assess the reliability between Chinese versions and between Chinese and English versions of this outcome measure.

Descriptive study using a 4-week test-retest design. Data were collected from a convenience sample of community living Chinese immigrants. Of the 79 participants, data from 71 subjects were included in the analysis. Two subsamples were formed to assess the reliability between Chinese versions (n = 33) and between Chinese and English versions (n = 38) of the scale.

Internal consistency of the ABC-C was 0.98. Test-retest reliability was intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.87 (95% CI, 0.76 - 0.93) for the Chinese versions and ICC = 0.88 (95% CI, 0.78 - 0.94) for Chinese and English versions. The total group ICC = 0.90 (95% CI, 0.84-0.94).

Balance confidence has been identified as an important area for clinical and research inquiry however collecting this information from Chinese speaking individuals has been limited by a lack of language specific measures. The Chinese version of the ABC has demonstrated acceptable measurement properties in this sample and should permit measurement of this unique construct in the Chinese population.