Article

There is a broad consensus on the coupling of deteriorating gait and vestibular
asymmetry, which has proved predictive of falls in the elderly.
To date, research
on this coupling remains inconclusive and has not focused specifically on
fallers. In the present study, differences in gait variability were examined in a
population of elderly females with fall-related wrist fractures, divided into
samples with positive (N=28, 73+/-9 years) and negative head-shaking tests (N=6,
67+/-9 years). Swing, stance, and double support time variability were measured
in preferred speed walking using GAITRite((R)) and statistically evaluated in
multivariate analysis of covariance with age as covariate. Results showed overall
greater gait variability for the positive nystagmus group (p=0.03) despite
non-significant adjustment of the covariate (p=0.18). In post-hoc analysis, the
effect on variability in double support time emerged as a significant and large
contributor to this difference (p=0.009, etap(2)=0.20). Conversely, the ability
of swing and stance time variability to discriminate between groups was both
non-significant and small (p=0.25, etap(2)=0.04 and p=0.34, etap(2)=0.03
respectively). We believe that the increased variability might stem from a
strategic use of double support to re-stabilize from balance perturbations during
gait. To some extent, these results diverge from previous findings and need to be
reassessed in future studies.
CI - Copyright (c) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS