UDC

612.6:616-053:616.7:616.8

Authors

Aleksandr V. Demin*/**, Andrey B. Gudkov*/**, Anastasiya A. Dolgoborodova*, Ol’ga N. Popova**, Vladimir P. Pashchenko**
*Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov (Arkhangelsk, Russian Federation)
**Northern State Medical University (Arkhangelsk, Russian Federation)

Abstract

It is known that significant changes in postural balance components in older adults occur after the age of 64, leading to increased incidence of falls in those over 65 years and older. However, no data is available today on the parameters of these changes in Russian scientific literature. This paper aimed to describe the age characteristics of postural balance components in women aged between 60 and 69 years. A total of 743 women were examined (mean age 64.7 ± 2.8 years). The first group included women aged 60–64 years (n = 332), while the second group included those aged 65–69 years (n = 411). To assess the quality of balance function, the strategy for maintaining posture, and the sensory organization of postural balance, we conducted the Sensory Organization Test (SOT) using the Smart Equitest Balance Manager system. The results showed that women from the first age group, as compared with the second, had higher indicators of balance function quality in functional tests 1 and 3–6, of postural strategy in tests 3, 4 and 6, as well as of visual and vestibular information in balance control. In addition, women over the age of 64 showed a decrease in resulting estimates of both the quality of balance function and postural strategy, which indicates deteriorating adaptive abilities and neurophysiological (physiological) mechanisms as well as quantitative parameters and qualitative states of postural balance in women aged 65–69 years. The revealed characteristics can serve as predictors of age-related changes in postural balance and the risk of falls in women aged 60–69 years.

Keywords

computerized posturography (stabilometry), Sensory Organization Test, postural balance, older women

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