ABSTRACT
Aging is a natural process, which involves intrinsic and extrinsic changes in the organism. The objective is to analyze five tasks of postural balance in older women through the strength platform, correlating them with risk of falls evaluated by the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. Participants of this study were 43 older women and 40 young adult women. They were evaluated on a force platform with a standard protocol: barefoot with arms along the body in Semi-Tandem and bipedal stances, with both eyes open and then closed, unipedal support using the postural sway of the center of pressure (COP) and the velocities in the anteroposterior axis (AP) and medial-lateral (ML). After 5 minutes of rest, TUGT was applied. The results showed that older women had greater postural instability (p<0.05) than younger women. The most challenging task for balance was unipedal support COP: 10.02(cm2); AP velocity: 3.00 (cm/s); ML velocity: 3.32 (cm/s). Older women needed a mean time of 9.01 seconds in the TUGT, considering a low risk of falls. Conclusion: Older women present a higher deficit in their balance compared with young women, so as Unipedal Stance Test (UPST) task was the most challenging for postural control of the two populations. Healthy older women presented a low risk for falls. No correlation was found between postural balance through the force platform and risk of falls during the TUGT.
Keywords:
Postural Balance; Accidental Falls; Aging
