The purposes of this study were to provide the basic data and investigate the reliability of functional reach test and identify correlation of Berg balance scale (BBS) and functional reach test (FRT). The subjects were twenty healthy young adults and forty-five over 65 years old in order to compare balance ability. These data were analyzed by independent t-test and Pearson's correlation test using SPSS WIN 10.0. The results were as follows. Intrarater reliability coefficients of FRT was .976 and interrater was .942. FRT was significantly correlated with age, height, and BBS (p<.05). There were no significant differences in FRT and BBS by sex. There was significant difference in reach distance between below 74 elderly and above in FRT. FRT is very reliable test for balance and significantly correlated with BBS. Therefore, it is suggested that FRT is a clinically useful tool to substitute for BBS measuring balance ability in the elderly.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether movement strategies affect functional forward reach distance in a standing position. Forty-seven healthy subjects were selected for this study: 23 men and 24 women, with an average age of 22.3. Functional forward reach distances were measured as hip strategy and squat strategy (included knee and ankle movement strategy) in a standing position, respectively. The mean values of functional forward reach distance in hip strategy, squat strategy were 33.57 cm, 29.48 cm, respectively. There was significantly difference in functional forward reach distance between hip strategy and squat strategy(p<.001). There was no difference of functional forward reach distance between male and female in hip strategy, but there was significant difference in other strategy(p<.05). These results suggest that movement strategies should be considered during functional forward reach test in standing. Further study is required to determine whether movement strategies affect functional reach distance in elderly and disabled groups.

In general, sitting balance is decreased in subjects with spinal cord injury. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the inter- and intra-rater reliability of the Functional Reach Test (FRT) which is used to measure sitting balance. The subjects of this study were 26 persons with spinal cord injury, and they were divided into three groups according to their injury level. Group I, II and III consisted of the following quadriplegics, , and paraplegics, respectively. Subjects sat on a mat table that was set at an 80 degree inclination. During three sessions, the length subjects could reach in the FRT test was measured by three physical therapists, and compared to each other. The results showed that intraclass correlation coefficients (2,1) were above 0.97 and inter-rater difference was not statistically significant. The one-way ANOVA demonstrated that reach differed between groups with lower thoracic lesion and the other test groups. In conclusion, we think modified FRT is useful and reliable method to measure the sitting balance in subjects with spinal cord injury.