Association Between Back Muscle Strength and Proprioception or Mechanoreceptor Control Strategy in Postural Balance in Elderly Adults with Lumbar Spondylosis.

Tadashi Ito,Yohei Ito,Kazunori Yamazaki,Yoshihito Sakai,Yoshifumi Morita

doi:10.3390/healthcare8010058

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between back muscle strength and proprioception or mechanoreceptor control strategies used for postural balance in elderly adults with lumbar spondylosis. The displacement of the center of pressure (COP) excursion was determined in 24 elderly adults with lumbar spondylosis and 24 healthy young adults while the participants were standing upright on a balance board with their eyes closed. Vibratory stimulations of 30, 60, and 240 Hz were applied to the gastrocnemius (GS) and lumbar multifidus (LM) muscles to evaluate the effect of different proprioceptive signals on postural control. Back muscle strength was evaluated. Spearman’s rank correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationship between back muscle strength and significant COP excursion. Compared with young adults, elderly adults with lumbar spondylosis showed an increase in COP excursion displacement when a vibratory stimulation of 240 Hz was applied to the GS (P = 0.002) and LM muscles (P < 0.001). LM stimulation at 240 Hz was significantly associated with back muscle strength (P = 0.038). Postural control assessment with 240-Hz mechanoreceptor stimulation of the trunk could be a good indicator of postural instability due to over-dependence on mechanoreceptors and back muscle weakness in elderly adults with lumbar spondylosis.

Highlights

Postural control is essential for performing daily living activities in both elderly and young adults.To detect motion and adjust voluntary and reflexive muscle responses, postural control differentiates sensory information from visual, vestibular, and proprioception stimulation [1]
Previous studies have shown that elderly patients with low back pain (LBP) depend on proprioceptive inputs of the Vater-Pacini corpuscles [5,17], which may imply that the postural strategy adopted by elderly adults with lumbar spondylosis depends on the mechanoreceptors of the
The results of the present study showed that during postural perturbation, back muscle weakness had a negative effect on a postural strategy involving mechanoreceptor input in elderly adults with lumbar spondylosis

Summary

Introduction

Postural control is essential for performing daily living activities in both elderly and young adults.To detect motion and adjust voluntary and reflexive muscle responses, postural control differentiates sensory information from visual, vestibular, and proprioception stimulation [1]. Postural control is essential for performing daily living activities in both elderly and young adults. Researchers have reported that elderly individuals control postural balance using a more rigid strategy that involves the ankle [6,7]. The postural control of elderly adults with lumbar spondylosis may be negatively influenced by weak back muscles, which could, in turn, result in over-dependence on proprioception or mechanoreceptors [8,9,10]. Bryan et al [12] suggested that muscle activity increases before the loading of joints during feedforward. Trunk proprioception is essential for the accurate modulation and activation of muscles and joints to provide adequate neuromuscular control of the trunk position and joint movement and, postural control [12,13,14]

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