The relationships between compensatory stepping thresholds and measures of gait, standing postural control, strength, and balance confidence in older women.

The study included only community-dwelling women aged 65 to 91 years who could walk a city block without a gait aid, so it says little about men, people with dementia, or older adults with greater mobility limitations. Participants were not followed to see who fell, so the paper cannot show that these relationships predict future falls. All measures were collected in one session, so the study cannot show whether strength, confidence, stance, or obstacle crossing came before or caused the stepping threshold differences. The paper reports 125 recruited and 112 analysed, but it does not give the number excluded from stepping-threshold testing, and exclusions were for safety or harness concerns. Reaction time was not measured, although the authors note it may influence stepping and unipedal stance. The anterior single-stepping threshold had weak relationships with other thresholds, and the authors question its relevance.

The authors reported no conflicts of interest. The article metadata lists NIH extramural research support.

Do not conclude that balance confidence, strength, unipedal stance, or obstacle crossing can replace stepping-threshold testing or predict falls. The relationships were inconsistent, the models explained only 25% to 50% of the variance in stepping thresholds, and the study did not follow participants to see who fell.