Comparison of Static Balance between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Elementary School Students

Abstract

Many of outstanding Taiwanese athletes are aborigines, and previous reports also indicated that aborigines are usually more gifted than non-aborigines. However, the reason for aborigines’ athletic ability remains unclear. The present study was aimed to compare the difference of static balance between aboriginal and non-aboriginal elementary school students. This study includes Tsou tribe aboriginal (n=14) and non-aboriginal (n=14) elementary school students, residing in Alishan township, Chiayi County. Participants were asked to quietly stand on a stable force platform with various static standing postures. The anteroposterior and mediolateral sway of the body center of pressure, the total length track and the area of the center of pressure were measured. The speed of movement was calculated. Results indicated that aboriginal students have significantly lower values than those of non-aboriginal students in anteroposterior sway, mediolateral sway, the total length track, the area of the center of pressure and the movement speed when they were in the following standing postures: open-eye left-single-leg stand, open-eye double-leg in tandem and close-eye double-leg in tandem. Moreover, aboriginal students showed significantly lower values than those of non-aboriginal students in the total length track and the area of the center of pressure when they were in the following standing postures: open-eye right-single-leg stand, open-eye double-leg stand and close-eye double-leg stand, which indicates aboriginal students have better static balance than non-aboriginals. Additionally, the body mass index of aboriginal students is higher than that of non-aboriginal students. The results of 7-day recall physical activity questionnaire indicate that the aboriginal students have significantly higher weekly physical activity than non-aboriginal students. Results of Spearman rank correlation analysis reveal that a reverse correlation between body mass index, physical activity. Our current study suggests that the static balance capability of aboriginal students may be influenced by their significant higher physical activity when compared to non-aboriginal students. This may be one of the reasons why aborigines have better athletic ability than non-aborigines.