Abstract
This study aimed to examine body sway characteristics and to propose effective body sway parameters for healthy elderly. The subjects were 311 healthy elderly and 380 healthy young adults. None of the subjects had evidence or known history of gait, posture, or skeletal disorders. The center of foot pressure measurement for 1 min was performed in 1 trial Using Animaâs stabilometer G5500. The data sampling frequency was 20 Hz. Thirty parameters with high reliability were selected from 5 domains of distance, area, velocity, power spectrum, and body sway vector. In comparison with the results for young adults, the elderly had markedly larger values of mean path length and root mean square of x-axis, as well as for 5 velocity parameters and 4 vector velocity parameters. In addition, approximately 10% of the data for parameters related to body sway velocity, especially front/back body sway, even in the healthy elderly fell in an abnormal range of values (mean ± 3 SD). In conclusion, the following parameters may be useful to adequately and simply evaluate the body sway characteristics of the elderly: sway size, sway velocity, and from a directional viewpoint, sway size in the right/left direction and sway velocity in the front/back direction.
Highlights
Body sway during a static upright posture is controlled by the synkinesis of the limbs and body trunk, based on information from posture adjustment functions such as the visuosensory, vestibular, and proprioception organ systems [1] (Cernacek et al, 1973)
These parameters are effective because unilateral labyrinthine dysfunction shows considerable unusual right/left body sway induced by labyrinthine deviation in the acute phase
Significant differences were found in 25 parameters and not in 5 others related to the power spectrum
Summary
Body sway during a static upright posture is controlled by the synkinesis of the limbs and body trunk, based on information from posture adjustment functions such as the visuosensory, vestibular, and proprioception organ systems [1] (Cernacek et al, 1973). A position vector is the vector from COP to a sampling point by the sum for all 8 directions This vector can be used to evaluate the spread of body sway. These parameters are effective because unilateral labyrinthine dysfunction shows considerable unusual right/left body sway induced by labyrinthine deviation in the acute phase. A velocity vector is divided in the 8 directions These parameters can be used to evaluate the directivity of body sway and are effective because unilateral labyrinthine dysfunction shows large right/left body sway in the acute phase and front/back body sway in the chronic phase
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
