STATIC AND DYNAMIC POSTURAL STABILITY MANIFESTATIONS IN THE ELDERLY POPULATION

The aim of the study was to observe and objectify the position and the movement of the human body as a determinant of the postural stability according to the static and dynamic realization with regard to the age and sex. The study was focused on selected group with the age 60-90 years old, where could be significant changes of postural stability and motor control in this group. The main task of the research is hypothesis the aging has strong influence for space orientation and balance feeling. This is conditioned by vestibular and sensory system interaction, by visual percept and proprioception. For postural stability evaluation, the observation of the Centre of Pressure was used. The main parameters as a left-right and front-back deviation and Total Traveled Way were used. The observing group had 48 adults with the age 60-92 years. There were two categories 28 women and 20 men (category 60-70 years 10 women and 8 men, category 70-80 years 8 women and 7 men, category 80-90 years 8 women and 7 men). For postural stability measurement, the FootScan (RScan, Belgium) was used. The system has sensitivity 0.1 N. cm-2 and the sampling frequency was 33 Hz. The research group absolved selected Romberg tests (wide standing, narrow standing with open and closed eyes, toe standing position with and without help of upper limbs with open and closed eyes). Dependent variables of postural stability were calculated by Univariate Anova. Effect of the independent variables (age, sex, visual control) and their interaction effect were evaluated by F-test and Effect size coefficient "Eta square" eta p2. Multiple comparisons were realized by Bonferroni post-hoc test. Analysis of variance showed in observed group significant effect of the age to postural stability (p<0.01, eta p2=0.186). Multiple comparison of averages did not show any significant effect of the age (selected groups) to postural stability (p>0.05). According to the sex, the women had a significantly better level of postural stability according to the men (p<0.01, eta p2=0.109). The visual control has in observed group significant effect to postural stability level (p<0.01, eta p2=0.121). Interaction effect of independent variables had not significant effect to postural stability. The significant differences were showed by Pos-hoc tests between sex in tests with visual control on observed groups 60-70 years and 70-80 years (P<0.05) and in test without visual control on observed groups 60-70 years and 70-80 years (p<0.05). The same results were found on motor control tests with the regard to the difficulty of the tests mainly.