A-60 Gender and Age Differences on the Sway Medical Mobile Balance Test

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).