Correlation between functional mobility, balance and risk of falls in elderly patients with Parkinson's disease

OBJECTIVE: The present study has as objective evaluates the balance, the trunk mobility and the risk of falls in patients with Parkinson's disease. METHODS: They were appraised six senior of both sexes with age same or larger than 60 years bearers of the Parkinson's disease. The research used an evaluation record for collection of the data of the history, a scale for evaluation of the corporal balance (scale of Berg), other scale (Downton) to evaluate fall risk and the test of functional reach to measure the mobility of the trunk and static balance. The statistical analysis used was the Pearson's test correlation with level of significance of 5% and 1%. RESULTS:: There is a correlation between the corporal balance and the risk of falls with r -0,8083, the correlation between the age and the risk of falls with r -0,7394, there is no correlation between the functional reach and the risk of falls with r -0,3593 and the time of lesion with risk of falls with r equal the -0,2292. CONCLUSION: The decrease of the static balance is directly related with the largest risk of falls and that the test of functional reach doesn't allow to predict on the risk of falls among the studied population.