Sensitivity to Change and Responsiveness of the Original and the Shortened Version of the Community Balance & Mobility Scale for Young Seniors.

ABSTRACT Objective To examine sensitivity to change and responsiveness of the Community Balance & Mobility Scale (CBM) and shortened CBM (s-CBM) Design Secondary analysis using data of a randomized controlled trial Setting General community Participants Community-dwelling seniors aged 61-70 years Intervention Participants underwent 12 months of exercise intervention Main Outcome Measures CBM and s-CBM. Sensitivity to change was assessed using standardized response mean (SRM), and paired t-tests as appropriate. Responsiveness was assessed using two minimal important difference (MID) estimates. Analyses were conducted for the full sample and for the subgroups ‘high-balance’ and ‘low-balance’, divided by median split. Results Young community-dwelling seniors (n=155, 66.2±2.5) were recruited. Inferential statistics revealed a significant CBM (p For the full sample, CBM and s-CBM exceeded the lower, but not the higher MID value. In the high-balance subgroup, the CBM exceeded both MID values, the s-CBM only the lower. In the low-balance subgroup, CBM and s-CBM exceeded both MID values. Conclusions The CBM is a suitable tool to detect intervention-related changes of balance and mobility in young, high-performing seniors. Both versions of the CBM scale show good sensitivity to change and responsiveness, particularly in young seniors with low-balance.