Enhancing the usefulness of the Mini-BESTest for measuring dynamic balance: a Rasch validation study

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Clinical Biomechanics
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The Mini-BESTest is a recently developed scale for assessing dynamic balance.
• While increasingly used, its psychometric properties require further validation for diverse clinical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Mini-BESTest using Rasch analysis.
• To develop a nomogram for converting Mini-BESTest raw scores into linear dynamic balance estimates.

Main Methods:

• An observational, cross-sectional study involving 234 neurological patients.
• Rasch analysis was employed to assess internal construct validity, reliability, and item fit.
• Principal component analysis and differential item functioning analysis were conducted.

Main Results:

• All 14 Mini-BESTest items demonstrated good fit to the dynamic balance construct.
• High reliability was observed for both persons (person reliability=0.91) and items (item reliability=0.99).
• The scale was confirmed as unidimensional, with no differential item functioning across age or gender groups.

Conclusions:

• The Mini-BESTest exhibits excellent psychometric properties, supporting its use in clinical practice and research.
• The study provides a method (nomogram) to convert ordinal scores into interval-level dynamic balance measurements.
• Findings enhance confidence in the Mini-BESTest for assessing dynamic balance in rehabilitation patients.