Percentiles and Reference Values for the Accelerometric Assessment of Static Balance in Women Aged 50–80 Years

The identification of factors that alter postural stability is fundamental in the design of interventions to maintain independence and mobility. This is especially important for women because of their longer life expectancy and higher incidence of falls compared to men. The objective of this study was to construct the percentile box charts and determine the values of reference for the accelerometric assessment of the static balance in women. For this, an observational and cross-sectional study with a sample composed of 496 women (68.8 ± 10.4 years old) was conducted. The measurement of accelerations used a triaxial accelerometer during three tests: two tests on the ground in monopodal support and a test on a mat with monopodal support for 30 s each. In all of the variables, an increase in the magnitude of the accelerations was detected as the age advanced. The box charts of the percentiles of the tests show the amplitude of the interquartile ranges, which increased as the age advanced. The values obtained can be used to assess changes in static balance due to aging, trauma and orthopaedic and neurodegenerative alterations that may alter postural stability and increase the risk of falling.

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Percentiles and Reference Values for Accelerometric Gait Assessment in Women Aged 50–80 Years

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci10110832 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 832

Author(s):

Raquel Leirós-Rodríguez ◽

Jesús García-Liñeira ◽

Anxela Soto-Rodríguez ◽

Jose L. García-Soidán

Keyword(s):

Life Expectancy ◽

Reference Values ◽

Postural Stability ◽

Healthy Adult ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Adult Women ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Risk Of Falling ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Gait Assessment

Background: The identification of factors that alter postural stability is fundamental in the design of interventions to maintain independence and mobility. This is especially important for women because of their longer life expectancy and higher incidence of falls than in men. We constructed the percentile box charts and determined the values of reference for the accelerometric assessment of the gait in women. Methods: We used a cross-sectional study with 1096 healthy adult women, who were asked to walk a distance of 20 m three times. Results: In all of the variables, a reduction in the magnitude of accelerations was detected as the age of the group advanced. The box charts show the amplitude of the interquartile ranges, which increases as the age of the participants advances. In addition, the interquartile ranges were greater in the variables that refer to the maximum values of the accelerations. Conclusions: The values obtained can be used to assess changes in gait due to aging, trauma and orthopaedic alterations that may alter postural stability and neurodegenerative processes that increase the risk of falling.

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Comparison of static balance of elderly women through two methods: computerized photogrammetry and accelerometer

Fisioterapia em Movimento ◽

10.1590/0103-5150.028.002.ao15 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

pp. 349-356 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Dirciane Stieven de Oliveira ◽

Gisele Oltramari ◽

Rodrigo Costa Schuster ◽

Daniel Tiago da Costa de Oliveira

Keyword(s):

Aging Process ◽

Elderly Women ◽

The Elderly ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

The Body ◽

Static Balance ◽

Triaxial Accelerometer ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Balance Assessment ◽

Cross Sectional

Introduction The aging process produces functional and structural deficits in the body, among these changes we highlight the changes in balance. Objective This study aims to compare the computed photogrammetry and accelerometer to assess static balance in the elderly. Methods This was an observational, cross-sectional study. The study included 112 female subjects participating in a mothers club, where the balance assessment was performed using computerized photogrammetry and accelerometer. Results Average age 70.3 ± 5.8 [60-79] years, with the majority of the sample (47.3%) consisted of elderly widows, followed by 41.1% of married elderly. Most of the sample (73.2%) reported not working, eighty-six percent of the sample reported not having suffered falls in the last year. The vast majority of elderly studied (93.8%) reported not having suffered fracture episode and 6.3% reported having suffered fracture episode in the last three months, 75% of the sample owned anteriorization trunk, 63% had previous oscillation trunk and 37% had subsequent oscillation. Conclusion There were significant direct and a moderate to good between the measurements obtained in photogrammetry and triaxial accelerometer correlations.

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