Chandler J M, Duncan P W, Studenski S A
Graduate Program in Physical Therapy, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710.
Phys Ther. 1990 Jul;70(7):410-5. doi: 10.1093/ptj/70.7.410.
The purpose of this study was to compare the postural responses of three groups of individuals--healthy young adults (n = 42; age, 20-40 years); healthy, community-dwelling, elderly individuals (n = 66; age, 60-102 years), and elderly individuals with a history of frequent falls (n = 10; age, 66-95 years)--using the postural stress test (PST). The PST is a simple, clinically applicable, quantitative measure of an individual's ability to withstand a series of graded destabilizing forces applied at the level of the subject's waist. Elderly fallers tend to score lower on the PST than elderly nonfallers, but age-related differences in postural responses during the PST have not been established. Each subject underwent the PST using a method and scoring procedure described previously. Results of this study confirm previous findings that elderly fallers score significantly lower on the PST than either young adult or nonfalling elderly individuals. This study also showed that there was no difference in balance strategy scores between the young adults and the healthy elderly subjects. Therefore, it appears that poor performance on the PST cannot be attributed to age alone, but may be predictive of pathological processes that predispose an individual to frequent falls.
本研究的目的是使用姿势应激测试（PST）比较三组个体的姿势反应，这三组个体分别为：健康的年轻成年人（n = 42；年龄20 - 40岁）；健康的社区居住老年人（n = 66；年龄60 - 102岁），以及有频繁跌倒史的老年人（n = 10；年龄66 - 95岁）。PST是一种简单、可应用于临床的定量测量方法，用于评估个体承受在其腰部水平施加的一系列分级失稳力的能力。有跌倒史的老年人在PST上的得分往往低于无跌倒史的老年人，但尚未确定PST期间姿势反应的年龄相关差异。每位受试者均采用先前描述的方法和评分程序进行PST测试。本研究结果证实了先前的发现，即有跌倒史的老年人在PST上的得分显著低于年轻成年人或无跌倒史的老年人。本研究还表明，年轻成年人与健康老年人在平衡策略得分上没有差异。因此，似乎PST表现不佳不能仅归因于年龄，而可能预示着使个体易发生频繁跌倒的病理过程。
