Background: In ageing populations fear of falling is an important issue. International studies and collaborations require scales suitable to more cultures. Scales developed in one culture require adaptation and additional investigation of psychometric properties for use in other countries.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the psychometric properties of a Dutch version of the Activities-specific Balance Confidence scale (ABC-NL) and whether adding questions about complex/dual tasks improves the discriminatory power.
METHOD: Subjects were 106 men and 140 women aged 65-92 years. Measures were the 16-item ABC-NL and seven additional more complex items, fall history, general and physical self-efficacy, a functional reach test and a balance platform test.
RESULTS: The ABC-NL had a weak ceiling effect. Internal consistency (Cronbachs alpha) was high. The relationship between ABC-NL and physical self-efficacy was significantly stronger than between the ABC-NL and general self-efficacy. Relationships with performance-based measures of balance were moderate. Differences between fallers and non-fallers and between activity avoiders and non-avoiders were significant. Adding questions about complex tasks hardly improved discriminatory power, reliability and validity.
CONCLUSION: Psychometric properties of the ABC-NL were satisfactory. Further research is needed for use in high-functioning older persons.