The effect of hyperkyphosis on balance recovery strategy of young and old people in response to sudden perturbations

Change in balance recovery strategy is one of the risk factors for falls in the elderly. The aim of this study was to answer the question whether the transfer of balance recovery strategy from ankle to hip joint in elderly is affected by natural increase of kyphosis with aging or not.
In this study, 60 men were randomly selected and classified in four groups: the kyphotic elderly, normal elderly, kyphotic youth and normal youth (respectively with a mean age of 65.3±3.7, 63.5±3.1, 23.7±1.7 & 24.3±1.1 years). For assessment of the balance recovery strategy, perturbation was done through sudden movement of the treadmill. Range of motion (ROM) of the ankle and hip joint of subjects were recorded by a motion analysis system when perturbation was done. The significance level was considered p Data analysis showed that ROM of the ankle is transferred to hip joint in elderly compared to young people (p0/05).
In general, it can be said that elderly had mainly hip dominant strategy and youth had mainly ankle dominant strategy for balance recovery. On the other hand, it seems that the changes in balance recovery strategies of older people is not affected by the natural increase of kyphosis angle due to aging and it is affected by other factors.