Postural balance under normal and altered sensory conditions in normal-weight and overweight children

Does load carriage differentially alter postural sway in overweight vs. normal-weight schoolchildren?

“…Despite similar findings during upright quiet stance without a backpack [10,25], obesity is generally associated with less effective postural control, particularly under posturally demanding conditions; e.g., quiet upright stance with a narrow base of support and/ or altered sensory information, or dynamic postural tasks [4,6,7]. In this study, obese/overweight children typically carried $14-28% (0.7-1.2 kg) heavier backpacks vs. normal-weight children; yet, the ratio of backpack to body weight was $0.2-2% lower for obese children.…”

“…While recent studies suggest sampling for at least 60 s to achieve good accuracy and reliability (e.g., [31]) balance assessments using children are often done for 30 s or even less [4,10,29,30]. Such a shorter sampling period is used since children (oppositely to what occurs in adults) are not fully aware to the purposes of the experiments and are thus less able to keep focused on the requested task (standing still as much as possible) and generally not willing (or able) to maintain quiet stance for long periods.…”

“…Further, the influence of obesity may only be evident under certain conditions or tasks demands. For example, when balance is assessed for simple tasks (e.g., bipedal stance with eyes open) the performance of obese children does not appear to differ from that of non-obese children [10]. This is in contrast to adults, for whom postural instability with obesity has been generally reported for quiet stance conditions [11], and the discrepancy may be a result of adaptations among children and/or the lack of chronic effects that are present among adults.…”

Development of postural balance in Brazilian children aged 4-10 years compared to young adults

“…In order to maintain postural balance, human beings rely on three main sources of information, namely: visual, proprioceptive and vestibular 1,2 . Information is sent by afferent pathways to the central nervous system, where it is processed and generates the appropriate motor response to correct any possible disruption or imbalance 3,4 .…”

Influencia del estado nutricional sobre el equilibrio postural en niños: un estudio piloto

“…Los niños con S/O tienen pies más planos por el desarrollo de una almohadilla de grasa en el área del medio pie. Este cambio en el apoyo plantar modificaría las zonas de soporte de peso del pie y, presuntamente, generaría cambios propioceptivos a nivel plantar que alterarían el mecanismo de control postural, aumentando las oscilaciones posturales en dirección mediolateral 17 . Otros estudios señalan que los cambios antropométricos provocados por el aumento de peso serían el factor principal en la pérdida del equilibrio postural 18 .…”