Relationship between weight bearing ratio in sitting and physical function assessment in healthy adults.
Yoshinao Moriyama, Ryota Shimamura, Masaki Hirosawa and 2 others
PMID 37131347WHAT IT FOUND
Pressing one foot on a scale while sitting correlated with stronger knee muscles, better lateral reach, and easier one-leg standing in 32 healthy adults.
The correlations were moderate. This suggests a cheap, single-foot weight-bearing test might reflect lower limb function even in people with high function.
Key findings
01Weight-bearing ratio in sitting showed significant positive correlations with knee extensor muscle strength, lateral reach test, and one-leg stand-up test on both pivot and non-pivot sides, as well as their total.
02The study included only healthy young adults (mean age 27.47 years), so it is unclear if these relationships hold for older adults or those with disease.
03The authors suggest weight-bearing ratio in sitting could be useful for tracking function in patients expected to improve, such as after stroke or lower limb surgery, because it does not show a ceiling effect in healthy adults.
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 only included 32 healthy young adults (mean age 27.47 years), so it does not show how this test performs in older adults or people with neurological or orthopedic conditions. It was a cross-sectional study, so it shows a link between measures at one point in time but cannot prove that weight-bearing ratio predicts future functional changes. Gender differences were not examined. The correlations were moderate (r values around 0.42 to 0.54), meaning weight-bearing ratio explains only part of the variation in strength and balance, not all of it.
Declared interests
The study was funded by a research grant from the Tokyo Metropolitan Rehabilitation Hospital. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this test is valid for your patients. The study was done only on healthy adults in their late twenties. The correlations were moderate, not strong, so pressing a scale with one foot is not a direct substitute for measuring strength or balance. It may not work the same way in older adults or people with disease.