Abstract
Although a number of different methods have been proposed to assess the time to stabilization (TTS), none is reliable in every axis and no tests of this type have been carried out on children. The purpose of this study was thus to develop a new computational method to obtain TTS using a time-scale (frequency) approach [i.e. continuous wavelet transformation (WAV)] in children. Thirty normally-developed children (mean age 10.16 years, SD = 1.52) participated in the study. Every participant performed 30 single-leg drop jump landings with the dominant lower limb (barefoot) on a force plate from three different heights (15cm, 20cm and 25cm). Five signals were used to compute the TTS: i) Raw, ii) Root mean squared, iii) Sequential average processing, iv) the fitting curve of the signal using an unbounded third order polynomial fit, and v) WAV. The reliability of the TTS was determined by computing both the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) and the Standard Error of the Measurement (SEM).In the antero-posterior and vertical axes, the values obtained with the WAV signal from all heights were similar to those obtained by raw, root mean squared and sequential average processing. The values obtained for the medio-lateral axis were relatively small. This WAV provided substantial-to-good ICC values and low SEM for almost all the axes and heights. The results of the current study thus suggest the WAV method could be used to compute overall TTS when studying children’s dynamic postural stability.
Highlights
Dynamic postural stability has up to now been considered as a capacity associated with impaired neuromuscular conditions and potential performance in sports [1,2,3,4,5]
Since the previous analyses were based on time domain signals, we aimed to change the perspective of the problem by exploring the signals in the frequency domain using a time-scale approach [i.e., continuous wavelet transformation (WAV)]
The ICC was relatively high for all the heights both in vertical ground reaction forces (GRF) (Fig 2A, 2D and 2G) and antero-posterior GRF (Fig 2B, 2E and 2H)
Summary
Dynamic postural stability has up to now been considered as a capacity associated with impaired neuromuscular conditions and potential performance in sports [1,2,3,4,5]. Due to the lower limb functional asymmetry linked to health, maturation and aging, postural stability has mainly been studied in older adults [6]. According to the theory of a developmental landscape in which more consistent coordination patterns are obtained with increasing age [7,8], it is important to analyze and understand the mechanisms of dynamic postural stability in different age-related groups, such as prepubescent children, who seem to have poorer. New analysis to compute time to stabilization in children
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