The purpose of this study was to determine the construct validity and reliability of the Balance Scale. This scale consisted of eight stances: bipedal stance with eyes open and closed, monopedal stance with eyes open and closed and these four stances repeated on a beam. These stances reflect the two factors related to balance, base of support and visual cues. The ability of subjects to maintain these stances was timed for a maximum of 30 sec. Using a nonprobability sample of 61 community living elders with a mean age of 71.9 yr., a forced four-factor principal components factor analysis was done. Simple structure was achieved with varimax rotation. The four factors extracted accounted for 79.2% of the total variance and were the monopedal factor, visual factor, bipedal nonvisual factor, and a beam factor. Standardized item coefficients for these factors ranged from .60 to .76.
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