Effects of age, sex and task on postural sway during quiet stance

Abstract

Background: Postural sway during quiet standing has been shown as a useful task to assess risk of falling in older adults. While the risk of falling is consistently reported to be higher in older females than males, the sex-related differences in postural sway are not consistent across the studies.

Research question: What are the effects of age and sex on postural sway during quiet standing during different stance conditions?

Methods: We examined the effects of age (40 young and 34 older adults), sex (37 males and 37 females), and their interaction on the postural sway during different stance conditions. We compared the center of pressure (CoP) velocity, amplitude and frequency during parallel (eyes open and eyes closed) and semi-tandem (eyes open) stances.

Results: Our results suggest that postural sway is similar between sexes in young participants, while older males exhibit larger postural sway than older female participants (10/21 outcomes). Older female participants exhibited lower CoP amplitude (but larger total and anterior-posterior CoP velocity) compared to young female participants. We also found that the increase in the postural sway with increasing task difficulty is more pronounced in older vs. young adults.

Significance: This study shows that ageing-related changes in postural sway are sex- and task-specific. Researchers and clinicians need to be aware of these effects when comparing groups or monitoring changes in time.

Keywords: Balance; Body sway; Centre of pressure; Elderly; Falls.