Evaluation of Postural Stability in Young and Elderly Women

Study aim: Assessment of postural stability performed on an unstable stabilometry platform. Comparison of the results ob­tained by two groups consisting of elderly (OW) (60+ years old) and younger women (YW).Material and methods: Seventy-three female volunteers were divided into two groups: 40 young women (20.2 ± 1.75), and 32 elderly women (68.3 ± 7.43). Participants performed five stability tests on Biodex Balance System SD: three 20-second tries, the Postural Stability Test (PST) and the Fall Risk Test (FRT). Three stability indexes - overall (OSI), anterior-posterior (APSI), and medial-lateral (MLSI) - both with eyes open (EO) and closed (EC) were analyzed. The impact of vision on balance was calculated as EC-EO. Also effect size was calculated and evaluated.Results: All of the parameters differed significantly between groups in favour of YW. The largest difference in significance as well as effect size was noted for FRT, p < 0.001 and 1.86 respectively. Tries measure the impact of vision on balance (EC-EO). The results concerning tries with EC-EO showed the strongest discrimination between groups - OSI p = 0.0088 (relative differ­ence 0.23 ± 0.26) and APSI p = 0.0268 (relative difference 0.17 ± 0.2). YW had a significantly better outcome.Conclusions: YW had better results in all of the parameters taken into consideration, with most of them being significant. This confirms that all of the regressive changes appearing with age influence balance. Lack of visual input (EC) in OW caused sig­nificantly worse results in most of the measured parameters, showing that vision is a very important factor for balance mainte­nance in the elderly.