Objectives: Although the Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test (Mini-BESTest) is known to be a reliable and valid measure of balance in individuals with stroke, the utility of this tool in relation to subacute stroke walking speed and the recovery of gait ability has not been explored. Here, we compared the measurement properties and their relationship to gait speed on the Mini-BESTest and the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) in middle and older ambulatory individuals with subacute stroke, and we investigated which balance assessment tool is more likely to capture the status of the recovery of gait speed.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the cases of 88 individuals 50 years or older with stroke who had been evaluated using the Mini-BESTest by using the BBS and by assessing their comfortable walking speed (CWS). The proportion of subjects who showed improvement was calculated for 34 stroke survivors from data obtained at admission to and discharge from the hospital.

Results: Compared with the BBS, the Mini-BESTest showed a better distribution of total scores without a ceiling effect. The two scales showed correlations with gait speed (Mini-BESTest: r=0.702; BBS: r=0.592) and discrimination between fast and slow walkers. The responsiveness of the Mini-BESTest was excellent, with an area under the curve of 0.894, thus discriminating between gait speed improvement versus non-improvement.

Conclusions: These results indicate that the Mini-BESTest is more useful than the BBS in terms of its measurement properties and ability to measure gait recovery in middle and older ambulatory individuals with subacute stroke.