Age-related Differences During Computerized Dynamic And Static Posturographyin Healthy Individuals.

Age-related differences during computerized dynamic and static posturography in healthy individuals.The ability to organize multiple sensory is declining with aging. However, acknowledgement of the age effects on postural control and balance is essential to differentiate between aging-induced physiological changes and actual pathological alterations. PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to establish the age-related postural changes in healthy individuals recorded by the Computerized Dynamic Posturography. METHODS: We recruited 20 young participants (8 men; 26 ± 8.6 years) into the young group (YG) and 11 middle-aged participants (4 men; 56.45 ± 3.88 years) into the middle-aged group (MG). We carried out a sensory organization test (SOT) and Rhythmic Weight Shift (RWS) test using the computerized dynamic posturography. In SOT, the participant is required to complete eighteen trials, divided into three trials for each of six different sensory scenarios. In RWS, the participants will be asked to voluntarily move at slow, medium, fast pacing in left-right direction and front-back direction separately. The statistical methods applied in this study were the Mann-Whitney U-test, independent two-sample t-test with a statistical threshold of p < 0.05. RESULTS: In the SOT, the MG demonstrated lower stability scores in condition 4-6 and lower composite scores(p < 0.05). Noticeably, scores in condition 4 were significantly statistically different(72.67 ± 8.10 vs.81.50 ± 5.35 , p < 0.001). In the RWS, the MG demonstrated significantly lower scores in forward-backward directional control in medium(70.22 ± 10.54 vs. 84.17 ± 5.51, p = 0.001) and fast trials (74.5 ± 8.4 vs. 88.4 ± 4.52, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: With age increasing, individuals have higher degree of postural imbalance and show a degeneration in dealing with inaccurate proprioceptive input, leading that more efforts are needed to maintain their balance when the elderly are standing on imbalanced platforms. The elder individuals also demonstrated lower forward-backward directional control in balance performance.