Objective
The purpose of this study is to translate the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) to the Korean version (K-BBS) and to evaluate its reliability. Method: With the agreement of Katherine Berg, the original editor of the BBS, two physiatrists and three physical therapists had translated the English version of BBS into Korean (K-BBS). This was back-translated into English by a Korean-American physiatrist fluent in English. After a 2- hour K-BBS education course, the video recorded K-BBS of 18 stroke patients were reviewed by nine examiners (four physiatrists and five physical therapists) to assess the inter- rater and the intra-rater reliability. Kendall's correlation co-efficient and Pearson's correlation coefficient were computed to assess the intra-rater and test-retest reliability, respectively. Results: The inter-rater reliability was 0.97 at 2 separate evaluations with an interval of 10 days (p＜0.05). The intra- rater reliability was 0.95 (p＜0.05) in the physiatrist group and 0.97 (p＜0.05) in the physical therapist group. Conclusion: We recommend that the Korean version of the Berg balance scale is a reliable instrument to be used in balance assessment of stroke patients. (J Korean Acad Rehab Med 2006; 30: 611-618)
