Balance and gait performance after maximal and submaximal endurance exercise in seniors: is there a higher fall-risk?
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Balance and gait performance after maximal and submaximal endurance exercise in seniors: is there a higher fall-risk? Lars Donath • Lukas Zahner • Ralf Roth • Livia Fricker • Mareike Cordes • Henner Hanssen Arno Schmidt-Trucksa¨ss • Oliver Faude
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Received: 4 January 2012 / Accepted: 27 July 2012 / Published online: 23 August 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract Impaired balance and gait performance increase fall-risk in seniors. Acute effects of different exercise bouts on gait and balance were not yet addressed. Therefore, 19 healthy seniors (10 women, 9 men, age: 64.6 ± 3.2 years) were examined on 3 days. After exhaustive treadmill testing, participants randomly completed a 2-km treadmill walking test (76 ± 8 % VO2max) and a resting control condition. Standing balance performance (SBALP) was assessed by single limb-eyes opened (SLEO) and double limb-eyes closed (DLEC) stance. Gait parameters were collected at comfortable walking velocity. A condition 9 time interaction of center of pressure path length (COPpath) was observed for both balance tasks (p \ 0.001). Small (Cohen’s d = 0.42, p = 0.05) and large (d = 1.04, p \ 0.001) COPpath increases were found after 2-km and maximal exercise during DLEC. Regarding SLEO, slightly increased COPpath occurred after 2-km walking (d = 0.29, p = 0.65) and large increases after exhaustive exercise (d = 1.24, p \ 0.001). No significant differences were found for gait parameters. Alterations of SBALP after exhaustive exercise might lead to higher fallrisk in seniors. Balance changes upon 2-km testing might be of minor relevance. Gait is not affected during single task walking at given velocities. Keywords Upright stance Gait variability Elderly Older Physical activity Exercise training
Communicated by Fausto Baldissera. L. Donath (&) L. Zahner R. Roth L. Fricker M. Cordes H. Hanssen A. Schmidt-Trucksa¨ss O. Faude Institute of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Basel, Birsstrasse 320B, 4052 Basel, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected]
Introduction Increasing life expectancy seriously affects worldwide population aging and proportions. Despite regional disparities, the global percentage of the population aged C 60 years was expected to increase from 10 to 32 % until the end of the present century (Lutz et al. 2008). With 46 % in the year 2100, the highest percentage of this agegroup was estimated for Western Europe (Lutz et al. 2008). This apparent societal over-aging is even more critical against the background of health-care utilization and expenditures. In this regard, unintentional falls and its related injuries are considered to be major economic and public health burdens in the elderly. Depending on morbidity status, the annual fall rates of seniors aged C 65 years range between 0.3 and 1.6 falls (weighted mean 0.6) per person (Rubenstein 2006) and the associated direct medical care costs amounts to $0.2 billion for fatal and $19 billion for nonfatal fall-related injuries (Stevens et al. 2006). Studies addressing cir
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