Effects of Ankle Inversion/eversion Strength and Rom on Medial Lateral Sway in Young and Elderly Populations

Abstract

Many elderly individuals often suffer from severe falls due to a lack of postural stability. Fall prevention programs are often too advanced for elderly populations with a more sedentary lifestyle or injuries. Programs that emphasize lower leg muscles and the ankle joint could be more helpful to those individuals. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect that ankle IV/EV strength and ROM have on medial-lateral sway in young and elderly populations. Ankle IV/EV strength was measured using a custom built device connected to a load cell adaptor. Ankle range of motion was measured using an electro goniometer, and a Biodex balance system was used to determine medial-lateral sway. Pearson r correlations were done for each dependent variable of each group to obtain predictive values on ROM, MVC, and M-L stability index data. An alpha of < .05 was used to determine statistical significance. Our findings indicated a significant relationship between EV MVC and M-L Sway (P =0.011; r = -0.730), EV MVC and EV PROM (P = 0.015; r = 0.709), as well as, EV MVC and AROM (P= 0.035; r = 0.637) for the elderly group. No significant relationships between ankle IN/EV MVC�s, ROM and M-L sway in the young group or IN MVC and ROM in the elderly group. The results of this study may have been altered due to the mobile equipment malfunction. The participants in the elderly group had to come to the lab on campus and were more active than anticipated. Also, the average age of the elderly group was younger than anticipated.