Weighting of Balance Deficiencies Performed by Physical Therapist in Argentina in Subjects With Risk of Falling

Materials and method Study design An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study will be carried out. For its future report, the recommendations given by the Checklist for Reporting of Survey Studies (CROSS) will be used.

Sample Characteristics All those physical therapist and related degrees dedicated to neurorehabilitation/vestibular rehabilitation/geriatrics and gerontology who practice in Argentina and who have experience in weighing balance deficiencies in subjects at risk of falling will be included. All surveys with missing data will be excluded. The type of sampling used will be non-probabilistic by snowball.

Data collection methods The online type survey which was created by the researchers of this study, will be made up of 25 items divided into 4 sections, a restriction will be created in each item to prevent respondents from leaving it without answering and those who have met all the inclusion criteria will access it.

• The first section (respondent characteristics) consists of 10 questions.
• The second section (weighting performed by the respondent) is made up of 12 questions. Those participants who choose the "no" option in question 11 will go on to the next section.
• The third section (self-perception of barriers and facilitators at the time of weighting) is made up of 2 questions.
• The fourth section (learning needs) consists of a question. Within the second section, the choice of scales was made based on a previous search in the literature about those that are most used, which to date have not been translated or adapted cross-culturally into Argentine Spanish, most of them. the same It will be aimed at all those physical therapist in Argentina who are dedicated to neurorehabilitation, vestibular rehabilitation, geriatrics and gerontology. With this purpose, a pilot test was carried out prior to the beginning of the study with the objective of the viability and understanding of the survey, it was carried out with 10 experts in the area. They were given a sheet with questions aimed at finding out the difficulties they encountered when answering the survey in general or with a particular question. Modifications were made through consensus among the authors.

Survey Administration You will be invited to participate in the study by sending the survey via email and through social network links (FacebookTM, TwitterTM, InstagramTM, LinkedinTM and WhatsappTM). The invitation will be given to specialized groups in the area, specialization careers, physical therapy colleges in the country and the Argentine association of kinesiology. The invitation will contain the objective of the study and its corresponding link to access the survey, which will be online through the SurveyMonkeyTM tool.