StaBLE: digital metrics capture balance performance across a wide spectrum of balance tasks and abilities
- 1Stanford University
Abstract
Balance is fundamental to mobility and independence, yet it remains difficult to measure in a way that is both clinically meaningful and feasible for widespread adoption. There is a need for more quantitative, objective, and accessible balance assessments. To this end, we created the Stanford Balance Level Evaluation (StaBLE), a battery of 18 balance-challenging tasks and accompanying digital performance metrics computed from video that aimed to capture widely ranging balance abilities across 180 participants. We validated the StaBLE score against existing clinical scales and found that it correlated with age ({rho} = -0.76, p<0.001), the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale ({rho} = 0.60, p<0.001), a Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test task ({tau}=0.55, p<0.001), 4-Stage Balance Test ({tau} = 0.55, p<0.001), and Short Physical Performance Battery ({tau} =0.57, p<0.001). StaBLE overcame ceiling effects in these existing scales and had a different underlying distribution for those identified at risk of falling and not (KS: 0.67, p<0.001). To reduce the time it takes to perform the test, we identified subsets of balance tasks that best predicted the StaBLE score across different populations. Together, our dataset, balance assessment protocol, and performance-based score demonstrate the validity of digital measures of balance.
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BibTeX
@misc{heigold2026stable,
title = {{StaBLE: digital metrics capture balance performance across a wide spectrum of balance tasks and abilities}},
author = {H. Heigold and P. S. Ruth and J. Muccini and D. Lee and S. Barta and A. Rodrigues and T. Hastie and K. K. Steenerson and S. L. Delp},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.16.750744},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.16.750744v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - StaBLE: digital metrics capture balance performance across a wide spectrum of balance tasks and abilities
AU - H. Heigold
AU - P. S. Ruth
AU - J. Muccini
AU - D. Lee
AU - S. Barta
AU - A. Rodrigues
AU - T. Hastie
AU - K. K. Steenerson
AU - S. L. Delp
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/16
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.16.750744
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.16.750744v1
AB - Balance is fundamental to mobility and independence, yet it remains difficult to measure in a way that is both clinically meaningful and feasible for widespread adoption. There is a need for more quantitative, objective, and accessible balance assessments. To this end, we created the Stanford Balance Level Evaluation (StaBLE), a battery of 18 balance-challenging tasks and accompanying digital performance metrics computed from video that aimed to capture widely ranging balance abilities across 180 participants. We validated the StaBLE score against existing clinical scales and found that it correlated with age ({rho} = -0.76, p<0.001), the Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale ({rho} = 0.60, p<0.001), a Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test task ({tau}=0.55, p<0.001), 4-Stage Balance Test ({tau} = 0.55, p<0.001), and Short Physical Performance Battery ({tau} =0.57, p<0.001). StaBLE overcame ceiling effects in these existing scales and had a different underlying distribution for those identified at risk of falling and not (KS: 0.67, p<0.001). To reduce the time it takes to perform the test, we identified subsets of balance tasks that best predicted the StaBLE score across different populations. Together, our dataset, balance assessment protocol, and performance-based score demonstrate the validity of digital measures of balance.
ER -