Class
Article
College
Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services
Department
English Department
Faculty Mentor
Sara A. Harper
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
Falls can take a serious toll on the quality of life and independence of daily activities. Among falls, forward falls are the most common fall direction. To prevent forward falls, compensatory steps and change-in-support reactions (e.g., foot contact) are critical for stabilizing after unanticipated, balance disturbances. The purpose was to determine if the time to stabilize varied across ages. Participants were grouped into three age groups (18-24, 25-33, and 40-58 years old). Participants performed 24 forward perturbation trials. Time to stabilize was evaluated as the time from their foot contacted the front force place to when the net anterior-posterior (AP) center of pressure (COP) velocity returned to within three standard deviations of the mean net AP COP velocity, compared to the last two seconds of foot contact on the front positioned force plate. A review of preliminary data via one-way analysis of variance assessed if the time to stabilize differed across age groups. We hypothesized that the time to stabilize would be different across the age groups, with the 40-58 age group requiring more time to stabilize. A total of 33 participants were enrolled in the study. Of the 33 participants, 30 (ages 31 ± 12, 57% female) completed both visits. These preliminary data illustrate that the time to stabilize was different across the three age groups (F (3, 28) = 3.213, p = 0.040), partially supporting our hypothesis. Pairwise comparisons using the least significant difference adjustment suggest there were differences between ages 18-24 (1.049 ± 0.558 ms) and ages 25-33 (0.858 ± 0.558 ms), with an increased time of 0.2 ms (95% CI, 0.286 to 0.354), p = 0.023. There were also differences between ages 25-33 (0.858 ± 0.558 ms) and ages 40-58 (1.058 ± 0.700 ms), p = 0.034, with ages 40-58 requiring 0.2 more time (95% CI, .0159 to 0.385 ms). While the 40-58 age group did require more time to stabilize compared to the 25-33 age group, the time was similar to the 18-24 age group. This indicated that age is a strong predictor of time to restabilize and can help give us further insight into preventing falls. Our data will also provide a good starting point when looking at older individuals (60+)
Location
Logan, UT
Start Date
4-8-2022 12:00 AM
Included in
Balance Recovery Time Was Different Across Age Groups
Logan, UT
Falls can take a serious toll on the quality of life and independence of daily activities. Among falls, forward falls are the most common fall direction. To prevent forward falls, compensatory steps and change-in-support reactions (e.g., foot contact) are critical for stabilizing after unanticipated, balance disturbances. The purpose was to determine if the time to stabilize varied across ages. Participants were grouped into three age groups (18-24, 25-33, and 40-58 years old). Participants performed 24 forward perturbation trials. Time to stabilize was evaluated as the time from their foot contacted the front force place to when the net anterior-posterior (AP) center of pressure (COP) velocity returned to within three standard deviations of the mean net AP COP velocity, compared to the last two seconds of foot contact on the front positioned force plate. A review of preliminary data via one-way analysis of variance assessed if the time to stabilize differed across age groups. We hypothesized that the time to stabilize would be different across the age groups, with the 40-58 age group requiring more time to stabilize. A total of 33 participants were enrolled in the study. Of the 33 participants, 30 (ages 31 ± 12, 57% female) completed both visits. These preliminary data illustrate that the time to stabilize was different across the three age groups (F (3, 28) = 3.213, p = 0.040), partially supporting our hypothesis. Pairwise comparisons using the least significant difference adjustment suggest there were differences between ages 18-24 (1.049 ± 0.558 ms) and ages 25-33 (0.858 ± 0.558 ms), with an increased time of 0.2 ms (95% CI, 0.286 to 0.354), p = 0.023. There were also differences between ages 25-33 (0.858 ± 0.558 ms) and ages 40-58 (1.058 ± 0.700 ms), p = 0.034, with ages 40-58 requiring 0.2 more time (95% CI, .0159 to 0.385 ms). While the 40-58 age group did require more time to stabilize compared to the 25-33 age group, the time was similar to the 18-24 age group. This indicated that age is a strong predictor of time to restabilize and can help give us further insight into preventing falls. Our data will also provide a good starting point when looking at older individuals (60+)