Reliability of the good balance system(®) for postural sway measurement in poststroke patients

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to examine test-retest reliability of the Good Balance system(®) for measurement of postural sway in poststroke patients. [Subjects] Sixty chronic stroke patients (40 men and 20 women; age 63.08 years; stroke duration 16.45 months) participated in this study. [Methods] Postural sway was evaluated using a force platform system (Good Balance system, Metitur Oy, Jyvaskyla, Finland). Two examiners measured postural sway for all participants during two separate testing sessions. The second measurement was performed one week after the first measurement. Intraclass correlation coefficients [ICC(2,1)] were used for estimation of reliability. [Results] The ICC (95% CI) for intra-examiner reliability was good to very good, ranging from 0.69 to 0.93 (0.53-0.96), and the ICC for inter-examiner reliability was good to very good, ranging from 0.85 to 0.98 (0.77-0.99). [Conclusion] The results of the current study indicated that the intra- and inter-examiner reliability of the Good Balance system(®) for measurement of postural sway was good to very good. Therefore, we suggest that measurement of postural sway using the Good Balance system(®) would be useful for clinical assessment in poststroke patients.