title: Characteristics of balance control in older persons who fall with injury--a prospective study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Older adults who have recently fallen demonstrate increased postural sway compared with non-fallers. However, the differences in postural control between older adults who were seriously injured (SI) as a result of a fall, compared with those who fell but were not injured (NSI) and non-fallers (NFs), has not been investigated. The objective of the present study was to investigate the underlying postural control mechanisms related to injuries resulting from a fall.
  
  
  METHODS
  Both traditional postural sway measures of foot center-of-pressure (CoP) displacements and fractal measures, the Stabilogram-Diffusion Analysis (SDA), were used to characterize the postural control. One hundred older adults aged 65-91years were tested during narrow base upright stance in eyes closed condition; falls were monitored over a 1-year period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-nine older adults fell during the 1-year follow-up, 13 were seriously injured as a result of a fall (SI), 36 were not injured (NSI), and 49 were non-fallers (NFs); two passed away. The SDA showed significantly higher short-term diffusion coefficients and critical displacements in SI in the anterior-posterior direction compared with both NSI and NF. However, in the medio-lateral direction there were no statistically significant differences between groups. For the traditional measures of sway, the average anterior-posterior CoP range was also larger in SI individuals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This work suggests that older fallers with a deterioration of anterior-posterior postural control may be at higher risk of serious injury following fall events.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
authors.forename: Ilan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kurz
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Oddsson
authors.forename: Itshak
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Melzer
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls; D000375:Aging; D005260:Female; D005528:Foot / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D004856:Postural Balance; D011187:Posture; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*