Laterality of Static and Dynamic Balance Abilities during One-leg Standing

Hiroki Aoki,Shinichi Demura,Hiroshi Hirai

doi:10.12691/ajssm-6-1-3

Abstract

Lower human limbs may not show laterality, differing from preferential use of upper limbs, because both legs are generally used at the same time. This study examined laterality of static and dynamic balance abilities during one-leg standing. The subjects were 100 healthy male university students (age 19.6 ± 2.4 years，height 172.3 ± 6.2 cm, weight 64.8 ± 8.5 kg). All subjects were judged right-leg dominant based on a previous survey. They underwent static and dynamic balance tests with each lower limb. A total path length during one-leg standing on a fixed stabilometer for the static balance test and an omnidirectional stability index during one-leg standing on an unstable platform (DYJOC Board) for the dynamic balance test was each used as an evaluation parameter. The mean of two trials was used as a representative value in each test. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) in both balance tests were very high (ICC = 0.75-0.91). A non-significant difference between means of dominant and non-dominant legs was found in both tests; their correlations were significant and high (0.93 and 0.75). In addition, a correlation between dynamic and static balance tests in both legs was found be significant but low (0.21-0.25). In conclusion, the laterality is not found in the static and dynamic balance abilities during one-leg standing evaluated by the tests selected in this study, and the relation between both abilities is negligible size.

Highlights

Balance ability is divided largely into static and dynamic
No significant difference was found between means of dominant and non-dominant legs in the balance tests (Table 1)
center of foot pressure (COP) sway during standing has a close relationship with static balance ability [18,19,20] and sway characteristics from infants to the elderly have been studied [21,22]

Summary

Introduction

Balance ability is divided largely into static and dynamic. Humans need greater balance ability exertion during one-leg standing than during both-legs standing to maintain stable posture because of a small supporting base area and an imposing large load on one leg. Kawabata et al [2] examined laterality of upper limbs using the following tests related to activities of daily living: the pegboard test (Buddenberg & Davis, 2000), the moving beans with tweezers test [3], and the pursuit rotor test [4]. Many researchers [4,5] reported that laterality is found in grip strength of dominant and non-dominant hands with different use frequency in daily life. On the other hand, regarding the lower limb, Grouios et al [6] reported a dominant leg used for maneuvering a ball and the other used for maintaining postural stability. Burnie and Brodie [7], Neumann et al [8], and Masuda et al [9] reported that a right–left difference was not found in maximum extension strength of hip and knee joints

Methods

Results

Conclusion