Relationship of single leg stance time to falls in Special Olympic athletes

The single-leg stance test is included in the FUNfitness (FF) screening for Special Olympic athletes to determine if balance education and/or referrals are needed. There are limited data regarding the use of the single-leg stance test for people with intellectual disabilities.

Data were collected for this prospective study as part of the FF screens during the 2018 Special Olympics summer games. Each athlete completed the SLS test on the right (R) and left (L) lower extremity (LE), with eyes opened (SLS-EO) and closed (SLS-EC), and asked if they had fallen in the past year.

A total of 178 athletes completed the test. Data analysis revealed a weak relationship between falls and SLS-EO (R LE r_s = -0.170 and L LE r_s = -0.185) and SLS-EC (R LE r_s = -0.169 and L LE r_s = -0.187), all of which were significant (p< .05). Sensitivity and specificity of the SLS-EO were low for both the R LE (74.5% and 42.2%, respectively) and L LE (74.5% and 42.7%, respectively). Sensitivity rose slightly with SLS-EC (R LE = 80.9% and L LE = 89.1%), while specificity decreased (R LE = 22.9% and L LE = 25.2%). The positive predictive values for SLS-EO and SLS-EC ranged from 27.3% to 31.8%. The SLS test demonstrated poor accuracy in identifying fallers in SO athletes with area under the curve values ranging from 0.610 to 0.623.

These results indicate that the SLS test, or cutoff scores used, may not be the most appropriate for this population.