TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2018//
TI  - Inter-gender differences of balance indicators in persons 60-90 years of age
JO  - Clinical interventions in aging
A1  - Puszczalowska-Lizis, Ewa
A1  - Bujas, Przemyslaw
A1  - Jandzis, Slawomir
A1  - Omorczyk, Jaroslaw
A1  - Zak, Marek
SP  - 903
EP  - 912
VL  - 13
IS  - 
N2  - INTRODUCTION: Precision of movements responsible for maintaining balance deteriorates with age due to natural involutionary processes, thus prompting a research question whether the values of gender-related stability indicators might differ significantly among the study subjects over 60 years of age. <br><br>METHODS: The study group comprised 136 seniors (89 women, 47 men; aged 60-90 years). The CQ-Stab 2P 2-platform posturograph was used as the main research device, whereas the Mann-Whitney <i>U</i>-test was used to evaluate the gender-related differences in the average level of variables. <br><br>RESULTS: In the open-eye test, significant gender-related differences were observed with regard to the statokinesiogram's path length in the mediolateral (ML) direction in the subjects aged 60-69 years (<i>p</i>=0.004), mean frequency of center of pressure (COP) displacement and number of COP displacements in the ML direction in the subjects aged 70-79 years (<i>p</i>=0.028, <i>p</i>=0.019), and mean COP displacement in the anteroposterior (AP) direction in the subjects aged 80-90 years (<i>p</i>=0.026). When the subjects were deprived of visual control, gender-related differences were observed with regard to the mean frequency of COP displacement, number of COP displacements in the ML direction in the subjects aged 60-69 years (<i>p</i>=0.045, <i>p</i>=0.049), and the statokinesiogram's path length in the AP direction in the subjects aged 70-79 years (<i>p</i>=0.015). In the oldest age group, the differences were noted in the statokinesiogram's path length in the AP direction (<i>p</i>=0.001), a sway area delimited by the COP point (<i>p</i>=0.003), range of AP stability (<i>p</i><0.001), and range of ML stability (<i>p</i>=0.048). <br><br>CONCLUSION: Gender-related differences affecting postural stability were found in the elderly. Men were characterized by a lower level of postural stability when compared with women. This highlights the need to have the gender-related differences taken into account, when developing various preventive and therapeutic programs specifically aimed at compensating certain involution-dependent deficits.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1176-9092
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S157182
ID  - ref1
ER  -