Ploeg, D.P.B. (Dante) (2020) The effects of age on beam walking performance, measured on reliability and validity. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Gait, balance impairments and muscle weakness are associated with falls in 30% of adults aged over 65 and that percentage goes up with increasing age. Nearly 50% of outdoor falls occur during walking. It is thus important to measure dynamic balance to get a better prediction for those who are likely to experience severe levels of mobility disability, including falls in the future. The main limitation of the functional tests used to measure dynamic balance is that they solely rely on gait speed and fail to quantify an actual balance loss while walking. Beam walking could measure dynamic balance more accurately than tests currently in use because of the balance loss element. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of age on beam walking performance (distance, velocity, step number). Other aims were to determine the test-retest reliability and validity of beam walking performance. 96 healthy adults are included in this study. Only adults aged over 50 years (n = 83) are included in the validity analyses and 22 participants were included in the reliability analysis. Results indicate aging leads to an average shorter distance, a decreased average velocity, and an average shorter step length in all conditions (tape, 12 cm, 8 cm, 4 cm). For younger adults, the 8 cm beam is reliable. For older adults, the tape and 8 cm beam are reliable. More data is needed to be able to completely confirm or deny the hypothesis that beam walking performance is reliable. Finally, an association was found between beam walking velocity and the score on the Mini-BESTest and SPPB.
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Hortobágyi, prof. dr. T. |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 20 May 2022 09:31 |
| Last Modified: | 20 May 2022 09:31 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3372 |
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