Changes in Postural Stability in Women Aged 20 to 80 Years

Choy, Nancy Low; Brauer, Sandra; Nitz, Jennifer C.

doi:10.1093/gerona/58.6.m525

Cited by 215 publications

(166 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Sensory deficits in the lower extremity, visual impairment, and vestibular impairment contribute significantly to poor postural control in the elderly. [26][27][28][29][30] The case is worse with elderly people with diabetes because the disease can affect the central and peripheral nervous systems, vestibular system, and vision, resulting in poor sensory input and limited central processing of the information received by the brain leading to poor body balance. 10,31,32 Defects in body balance result in increased body sway, decreased postural stability, and increased incidence of falls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tactile Intervention as a Novel Technique in Improving Body Stability in Healthy Elderly and Elderly with Diabetes

Alshammari

Petrofsky

Daher

et al. 2014

Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics

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Background: Body sway increases in the elderly because of normal aging and high incidence of disease such as diabetes. Prevalence of sway is greater in the elderly with diabetes because of damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems. Increase in body sway is associated with an elevated risk of falling. Falling is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the elderly. The purpose of this study was to develop a new technique to improve body stability and decrease body sway in the elderly people with or without diabetes. Subjects and Methods: Twenty-two subjects-12 elderly (mean age, 75.5 -7.3 years) and 10 age-matched elderly with diabetes (mean age, 72.5 -5.3 years)-were recruited for this study. Subjects received tactile feedback as a tingling sensation resulting from electrical stimulation triggered by body sway. Results: The results showed a significant reduction in body sway in the elderly while standing on foam with eyes open (1.0 -0.31 vs. 1.9 -0.8; P = 0.006) and eyes closed (1.8 -0.7 vs. 3.3 -1.5; P = 0.001). In the group with diabetes, there was a significant reduction in body sway while standing on foam with eyes closed (1.4 -0.5 vs. 2.3 -0.8; P = 0.045) but not with eyes open. Conclusions: In this small study, this technique offers a new tool for training people with diabetes and elderly people to improve body stability and balance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tactile Intervention as a Novel Technique in Improving Body Stability in Healthy Elderly and Elderly with Diabetes

Alshammari

Petrofsky

Daher

et al. 2014

Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics

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“…A significant body of work exists that shows older individuals have reduced balance control compared to young individuals (Prieto et al 1996;Maki et al 1994;Maki et al 1990;Brauer et al 2000;Thapa et al 1996;Meizer et al 2004;Gill et al 2001;Piirtola and Era 2006;Laughton et al 2003). These differences are normally attributed to deficits in the visual or sensorimotor systems (Prieto et al 1996;Choy et al 2003), and this has been clearly identified as a risk factor for falls (Horak et al 1989;Maki et al 1994;Muir et al 2010).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of obesity on balance control in community-dwelling older women

Dutil

Handrigan

Corbeil

et al. 2012

AGE

109

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Older individuals have impaired balance control, particularly those that are frail and/or have sensory deprivations. Obese individuals show faster body sway during upright stance than normal weight individuals, suggesting that they also have difficulty controlling balance even if they do not have the same sensory issues as the older people. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine if obesity is associated to a decreased balance control in older women. Postural sway of normal weight (n 015, age070.8±5.5 years; BMI022.2±1.9 kg/m 2 ), overweight (n 015, age 071.7 ± 4.3 years; BMI 027.3 ± 1.3 kg/m 2 ), and obese (n015, age071.1±4.3 years; BMI033.1±3.4 kg/m 2 ) women was measured with a force platform for normal quiet stance lasting for 30 s in opened and closed eyes conditions. The obese group oscillated at a faster speed than the normal weight group (vision 0.99 ± 0.29 cm/s vs. 0.70 ± 0.16 cm/s, p<0.01; no vision 1.43± 0.50 cm/s vs. 0.87±0.23 cm/s, p<0.01). The obese group exhibited greater range in both axes without vision compared to the normal weight group (p<0.05). When observing sway density parameters, the obese group also spent less time in stability zones (2 mm radius area in which the center of pressure is relatively stable), and the distance between these stability zones are greater than the normal weight group in both visual conditions (p< 0.01 and p<0.05, respectively). Obesity clearly affects postural control in older women. Our results suggest that obesity has a negative impact on the capacity of older woman to adequately use proprioceptive information for posture control. As postural instability or balance control deficits are identified as a risk factor for falling, our results also suggest that obesity in older women could be considered as another potential contributing factor for falling.

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“…Data analysis showed significant statistical differences between the two groups of subjects under each measurement condition. Some articles point to the possible effect of age on postural stability (Choy, Brauer, & Nitz, 2003). In the mentioned study, certain instability was evident in women older than 50 years when a foam surface was introduced and in women older than 60 years when a firm surface was used.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%