Key result
Women with osteoporosis exhibited increased medial-lateral body sway (2.63 vs 2.00 mm, p=0.021) and more irregular anterior-posterior sway compared to healthy controls.
Why the study?
The mechanisms underlying altered postural control and fall risk in patients with osteoporosis are not yet fully understood.
Does postural sway differ between women with osteoporosis and healthy controls?
Case-Control (n=60)
Does postural sway differ between women with osteoporosis and healthy controls?
Absolute Event Rate: 2.63% vs 2%
p-value: p=0.021
Women with osteoporosis exhibit altered postural sway compared to healthy controls, suggesting nonlinear methods may help identify high-risk fallers.
Postural sway differences may inform fall risk assessment in osteoporosis; leaves open causal mechanisms and clinical utility.
The mechanisms underlying the altered postural control and risk of falling in patients with osteoporosis are not yet fully understood. The aim of the present study was to investigate postural sway in women with osteoporosis and a control group. The postural sway of 41 women with osteoporosis (17 fallers and 24 non-fallers) and 19 healthy controls was measured in a static standing task with a force plate. The amount of sway was characterized by traditional (linear) center-of-pressure (COP) parameters. Structural (nonlinear) COP methods include spectral analysis by means of a 12-level wavelet transform and a regularity analysis via multiscale entropy (MSE) with determination of the complexity index. Patients showed increased body sway in the medial–lateral (ML) direction (standard deviation in mm: 2.63 ± 1.00 vs. 2.00 ± 0.58, p = 0.021; range of motion in mm: 15.33 ± 5.58 vs. 10.86 ± 3.14, p = 0.002) and more irregular sway in the anterior–posterior (AP) direction (complexity index: 13.75 ± 2.19 vs. 11.18 ± 4.44, p = 0.027) relative to controls. Fallers showed higher-frequency responses than non-fallers in the AP direction. Thus, postural sway is differently affected by osteoporosis in the ML and AP directions. Clinically, effective assessment and rehabilitation of balance disorders can benefit from an extended analysis of postural control with nonlinear methods, which may also contribute to the improvement of risk profiles or a screening tool for the identification of high-risk fallers, thereby prevent fractures in women with osteoporosis.
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Stief et al. (2023) conducted a case-control in Osteoporosis (n=60). Osteoporosis vs. Healthy controls was evaluated on Body sway in the medial-lateral direction (standard deviation in mm) (p=0.021). Women with osteoporosis exhibited increased medial-lateral body sway (2.63 vs 2.00 mm, p=0.021) and more irregular anterior-posterior sway compared to healthy controls.
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