Abstract
Abstract Purpose To determine if performance on the Sway Medical Mobile Application Balance Test differs by age and gender. Methods Pre-season baseline data from 33,784 individuals (51.3% girls/women) between ages 12 and 22 (mean=16.8 years, SD=2.5), tested in the summer of 2022, without a self-reported concussion in the past 6 months, and without self-reported ADHD were examined. Three Spearman correlations were used to assess the association between balance scores and age for the total sample, and for the boys/men and girls/women groups separately. Twelve Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare genders on balance scores within each age group (12, 13, 14, through 22-years-old) and for the total sample. A Bonferroni correction was used to adjust for multiple comparisons, and the level of significance was set at p=0.004. Results There was a positive correlation between higher (i.e., better) balance scores and older age for the total sample (r=.25, p<.001), and within the boys/men (r=.30, p<.001) and girls/women groups separately (r=.21, p<.001). For every age, there was a significant difference between boys/men and girls/women on balance test scores, with girls/women obtaining higher (i.e., better) balance scores than boys/men. Effect sizes for these differences ranged from small to medium (Hedge’s g=.29-.65). Conclusions There are age and gender-related differences on baseline Sway Medical Mobile Balance Test scores. Girls/women performed better on the balance testing compared to boys/men at all ages. Additionally, the balance scores improved throughout adolescence and generally plateaued in early adulthood (18-22-years-old).
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