Effects of task velocity and center of mass acceleration during Y-Balance Test in elderly females with good and poor visual acuity.
Sun-Shil Shin, Won-Gyu Yoo, Duk-Hyun An
PMID 29950784WHAT IT FOUND
Elderly women with poorer corrected binocular vision reached less far and moved slower on the Y-Balance Test.
Their center of mass acceleration was higher when reaching forward.
Key findings
01Normalized reach distance and composite reach were significantly longer in the good binocular visual acuity group than in the poor binocular visual acuity group.
02Task velocity was significantly higher in the good binocular visual acuity group than in the poor binocular visual acuity group in each reaching direction.
03Center of mass acceleration was significantly lower in the good binocular visual acuity group than in the poor binocular visual acuity group during anterior reaching.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that poorer vision caused the balance differences. It included only elderly females, so the results may not apply to men or younger adults. All participants could walk independently and had no neurologic or musculoskeletal disease, so it says little about more impaired patients. Visual field was not measured, although it can influence postural control. Center of mass was measured as a single vector magnitude, not by body plane.
Declared interests
The work was supported by an Inje University research grant, and the authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that poor vision causes worse balance or falls. The study compared groups at a single time point and did not test whether improving vision changes Y-Balance Test performance.