Journal
JOURNAL OF ELECTROMYOGRAPHY AND KINESIOLOGY
Volume 23, Issue 4, Pages 814-819Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jelekin.2013.04.001
Keywords
Aging; Balance; Falls; Postural control; Stabilogram-Diffusion Analysis; Open and closed loop mechanisms
Categories
Funding
- Sapir Research Foundation of Mifal H'apais, Israel
- Sister Kenny Foundation, Minneapolis, MN, USA
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Objective: Older adults who have recently fallen demonstrate increased postural sway compared with non-fallers. However, the differences in postural control between older adults who were seriously injured (SI) as a result of a fall, compared with those who fell but were not injured (NSI) and non-fallers (NFs), has not been investigated. The objective of the present study was to investigate the underlying postural control mechanisms related to injuries resulting from a fall. Methods: Both traditional postural sway measures of foot center-of-pressure (CoP) displacements and fractal measures, the Stabilogram-Diffusion Analysis (SDA), were used to characterize the postural control. One hundred older adults aged 65-91 years were tested during narrow base upright stance in eyes closed condition; falls were monitored over a 1-year period. Results: Forty-nine older adults fell during the 1-year follow-up, 13 were seriously injured as a result of a fall (SI), 36 were not injured (NSI), and 49 were non-fallers (NFs); two passed away. The SDA showed significantly higher short-term diffusion coefficients and critical displacements in SI in the anterior-posterior direction compared with both NSI and NF. However, in the medio-lateral direction there were no statistically significant differences between groups. For the traditional measures of sway, the average anterior-posterior CoP range was also larger in SI individuals. Conclusions: This work suggests that older fallers with a deterioration of anterior-posterior postural control may be at higher risk of serious injury following fall events. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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