Background and Aim: Balance impairment in patients with stroke leads to dependence in activities of daily living. Appropriate, accurate and inexpensive tools are necessary to assess the severity of balance impairment. In order to identify individuals with chronic stroke who have balance impairment and to apply proper treatment, the aim of this study was to examine the sensitivity and specificity of Timed Up and Go (TUG) and Functional Reach (FR) tests, Bend Reach test (BRT) and Step test (ST) in functional balance assessment of patients with chronic cerebrovascular accident.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional comparative study, eighty-one patients with chronic stroke by mean age of 58.82 (±13.48) years and the mean past duration of disease 36.33 (28.27) months were selected by simple non-probability method. Functional balance and mobility tests including TUG, FR, BRT and ST were used as index test and the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) was used as reference test.

Results: All of functional balance and mobility tests including TUG, FR, BRT and ST have a significant ability to identify individuals with chronic stroke subjected to the balance impairment compared with BBS(p<0.0001). Sensitivity of functional balance and mobility tests including TUG, FR, BRT and ST in intact and affected feet at the moderate or above threshold were 90, 90, 88, 88 and 90 percent respectively and at the sever threshold were 60, 85, 58, 88 and 60 percent respectively. Specificity of these tests at the moderate or above threshold were 56, 85, 65, 57 and 53 percent, respectively and at the sever threshold were 89, 90, 92, 30 and 92 percent respectively. TUG functional balance and mobility test had the highest agreement with BBS balance test.

Conclusion: TUG functional balance and mobility test are the best tool to identify chronic stroke patients with balance impairment in both moderate or above and severe threshold.

Keywords: Chronic stroke, Balance, Sensitivity, Specificity