| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 物理治療暨輔助科技學系 === 96 === Background: Falling is a serious problem of elderly people, so many researchers study hard of the factors related to falling. Many researchers agree that postural sway is one of the main causes of falling. In this study, we measure the balance ability of young and elderly female subjects by clinical tests and force platform during standing and sitting. The purposes of this study are to find the difference of balance ability between young and elderly female subjects, to find if there are any age-related or fall-related changes of balance ability among elderly female subjects, and to establish an objective method and reference data of measuring center of pressure (COP) during sitting. Method: There were 87 elderly female subjects and 25 young female subjects recruited into this study. All of them were examined by functional reach test, timed-up and go test and COP measurements. All subjects were separated to 11 subgroups by age. The results of clinical tests and COP measurements were shown in median, and were tested by Mann-Whitney U test to distinguish the differences between the age subgroups. The interactions between age and clinical test results on COP parameters were tested by two-way ANOVA. Results: The functional reach test results of young female subjects were better than elderly, and the results could distinguish elderly subjects between younger than 80 y/o and older than 81 y/o. The timed-up and go test results of young female subjects were better than elderly, and the results could distinguish elderly subjects between younger than 79 y/o and older than 80 y/o. The interactions between age and functional reach test results were shown on most of the velocity parameters, and the interactions between age and timed-up and go test results were shown on few parameters. The COP velocity and range of young female subjects were significant less than elderly subjects during standing and sitting. The COP range during standing of elderly female subjects were increased with age, and the COP range during sitting, COP velocity during standing and sitting were decreased with age. The COP velocity during standing could distinguish the balance performance between younger and older elderly subjects, and the COP velocity during sitting could distinguish balance performance among older elderly subjects. The COP velocity during standing could distinguish elderly people from with fall experiment to without fall experiment. Conclusion: The elderly subjects had worse performance of clinical tests and COP performance. Many of the COP parameters could distinguish the balance ability between younger and older elderly subjects. The COP performance during sitting was similar to the performance during standing, and some of the COP parameters during sitting could distinguish the balance performance among older elderly subjects, so sitting balance test could be one of the balance tests for elderly people, especially with older, frailer elderly subject.
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