Comparison of Concurrent and Same-Day Balance Measurement Approaches in a Large Sample of Uninjured Collegiate Athletes.
Jessica Saalfield, Kelsey L Piersol, Robert Monaco and 7 others
PMID 35136692WHAT IT FOUND
In uninjured collegiate athletes, balance scores varied widely between people, and same-day measurements with an iPad sensor and force plate did not agree closely.
Do not assume a baseline balance score is interchangeable across devices.
Key findings
01In 530 uninjured athletes, C3Logix error counts and ellipsoid volumes were significantly correlated in tandem leg/firm surface and single leg/firm surface, but not in double leg/firm surface.
02In the 177 athletes tested on the same day, C3Logix ellipsoid volumes and BioSway Sway Index scores were significantly correlated at .27 and .22 in the double leg/firm and double leg/foam conditions.
03In double leg/firm surface, 99% made no errors; in single leg/foam, 20% made maximal error counts (10+).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The sample was uninjured Division I athletes from one university, so results may not apply to other athletes or injured patients. The study did not test concussed athletes, so it cannot say how these measures behave after injury. C3Logix and BioSway were not designed for concurrent testing; in the same-day subset, BioSway was completed before C3Logix. Tester reliability was not assessed, and sex or sport differences were only visually inspected, not statistically tested. Easy double leg/firm surface stances had floor effects, while harder stances showed large variability, and single baseline values are therefore limited.
Declared interests
No authors declared a conflict of interest. The project was funded in part by the NJ Commission on Brain Injury Research and NIH awards, with additional support from Rutgers.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the significant correlations as evidence that balance devices are interchangeable. The same-day C3Logix and BioSway correlations were only .27 and .22, and error counts and ellipsoid volumes did not show a significant correlation in double leg/firm surface.