Postural instructions affect postural sway in young adults.
Rajal G Cohen, Johanna Hocketstaller
PMID 36584422WHAT IT FOUND
Telling healthy young adults to exert effort to stand up straight made their balance worse on an unstable surface.
Instructions to lighten up or stand relaxed resulted in significantly steadier posture than effort-based cues.
Key findings
01Effort-based instructions resulted in higher sway amplitude, velocity, path length, and jerk compared to relaxed standing.
02Effort-based instructions resulted in higher path length and jerk compared to light instructions.
03There was no significant difference in postural sway between relaxed standing and light instructions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study used a static standing task, which may not reflect the demands of walking or dual-tasking where fall risk is often higher. The sample size was small and excluded two participants as outliers, reducing the analysed number to 18. There was no control condition where participants received no postural instructions, so it is unclear if relaxed or light instructions are better than natural standing. The short practice time means it is unknown if adaptation would occur with longer training in effort-based postures.
Declared interests
None declared in the text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that light instructions are superior to relaxed standing for healthy young adults. The study found no significant difference between these two conditions, meaning either may be acceptable, but effort-based cues were clearly worse.