Clinique romande de réadaptation, Sion, Switzerland.
Swiss federal institute of technology, Lausanne, Switzerland.
PLoS One. 2019 Jan 23;14(1):e0211051. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211051. eCollection 2019.
Many diseases and conditions decrease the ability to control balance. In clinical settings, there is therefore a major interest in the assessment of postural control. Trunk accelerometry is an easy, low-cost method used for balance testing and constitutes an alternative method to the posturography using force platforms. The objective was to assess the responsiveness of accelerometry in a battery of 12 quiet standing tasks. We evaluated the balance of 100 healthy adults with an accelerometer fixed onto the sternum. We used the average amplitude of acceleration as an indirect measure of postural sways. The tasks of increased difficulty were realized with or without vision. The battery of tasks was repeated four times on two different days to assess reliability. We analyzed the extent to which the task difficulty and the absence of vision affected the trunk sway. The influence of individual characteristics (age, height, mass, sex, and physical activity level) was also assessed. The reliability analysis revealed that four repetitions of the battery of tasks are needed to reach a high accuracy level (mean ICC = 0.85). The results showed that task difficulty had a very large effect on trunk sways and that the removal of vision further increased sways. Concerning the effects of individual characteristics, we observed that women tended to oscillate more than men did in tasks of low difficulty. Age and physical activity level also had significant effects, whereas height and mass did not. In conclusion, age, sex, and physical fitness are confounders that should be considered when assessing patients' balance. A battery of simple postural tasks measured by upper-trunk accelerometry can be a useful method for simple balance evaluation in clinical settings.
许多疾病和状况会降低对平衡的控制能力。因此,在临床环境中,人们对姿势控制的评估产生了浓厚的兴趣。躯干加速度计是一种用于平衡测试的简单、低成本的方法,是使用力台的替代方法。目的是评估在 12 项安静站立任务的电池中加速度计的反应能力。我们使用加速度计固定在胸骨上来评估 100 名健康成年人的平衡。我们使用加速度的平均幅度作为姿势摆动的间接测量。通过有或没有视觉来实现难度增加的任务。该电池的任务在两天内重复四次以评估可靠性。我们分析了任务难度和缺乏视觉对躯干摆动的影响程度。还评估了个体特征(年龄、身高、体重、性别和身体活动水平)的影响。可靠性分析表明,需要四次重复电池的任务才能达到高精度水平(平均 ICC = 0.85)。结果表明,任务难度对躯干摆动有很大影响,去除视觉会进一步增加摆动。关于个体特征的影响,我们观察到女性在低难度任务中比男性更容易摆动。年龄和身体活动水平也有显著影响,而身高和体重则没有。总之,年龄、性别和身体状况是评估患者平衡时应考虑的混杂因素。由上躯干加速度计测量的一系列简单姿势任务可能是临床环境中简单平衡评估的有用方法。