[Association Between Balance Disorders, Fibromyalgia Severity, and Balance Confidence: An Observational Study on...

Fibromyalgia is a syndrome of widespread chronic pain, associated with fatigue, sleep disorders, and a wide range of additional symptoms, among which balance disorders are a common complaint.

To determine a correlation between balance disorders and severity of fibromyalgia.

An observational cross-sectional study was conducted at the Pain Treatment Unit of the Clinical Hospital of the University of Chile. The Berg Balance Scale (BBS) was used to assess balance disorders, the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ-R) was used to measure the severity of fibromyalgia, and the Activities Specific Balance Confidence (ABC-16) was used to evaluate balance confidence.

A total of 35 patients were recruited (97.14% women), with a mean age of 50.97 years. 97.14% of the patients showed a moderate to severe impact on the FIQ-R. The mean score obtained on the Berg Balance Scale was 49.57 points, revealing a significant negative correlation between the FIQ score and the Berg Balance Scale score (rPearson=-0.64 to -0.70). The mean score obtained on the ABC-16 was 47%, exhibiting a moderate correlation with the Berg Balance Scale score (rPearson=0.54). Additionally, 54.29% of the patients reported having experienced one or more falls in the last 6 months.

A significant inverse correlation was found between balance disorders and the severity of fibromyalgia impact. Additionally, a moderate correlation was observed between balance confidence and Berg Balance Scale scores.