Participants
arthrosis, acute psychotic syndrome, chronic disabilities
DISEASE, ARTHROSIS, PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY, CONCOMITANT DISEASE
We enrolled a total of 60 healthy participants for three different age classes (young: n = 20, 18–34 years; middle-aged: n = 20, 35–59 years; old: n = 20, 60 + years). Our inclusion criteria were sufficient German language fluency and written informed consent. Exclusion criteria were: acute psychotic syndrome, medication or concomitant disease limiting the integrity of scientific data, concomitant disease and any additional disease impairing stance and gait or upper-limb function in a relevant way (e.g. painful arthrosis, recent joint replacement, peripheral neuropathy). All subjects underwent detailed anamnesis, including the number of falls within the last past half year as well as chronic disabilities requiring medical treatment. Furthermore, we clinically tested balance and mobility via the Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment (POMA) including 9 balance items (Score 0–16) and 8 gait items (Score 0–12), with a lower score indicating a high risk of falling [
Subjects’ characteristicsAge (years) mean ± SD(range)26.4 ± 3.3(19–32)47.9 ± 9.0(35–59)67.8 ± 6.5(61–81)Weight (kg) mean ± SD(range)69.6 ± 13.6(52–103)76.1 ± 17.2(50–100)70.1 ± 13.7(52–105)Height (m) mean ± SD(range)1.75 ± 0.9(1.62–1.93)1.73 ± 0.1(1.58–1.89)1.69 ± 0.1(1.55–1.80)BMI (kg/m²) mean ± SD(range)22.8 ± 4.5(17.2–38.2)25.3 ± 4.6(19.0–35.4)24.5 ± 3.8(19.4–33.9)FES-I [scale 16–64](range)16.5 ± 0.6(16–18)17.4 ± 1.7(16–21)17.2 ± 1.5(16–21)POMA [scale 0–28](range)27.9 ± 0.3(27–28)27.7 ± 0.6(26–28)27.6 ± 0.6(26–28)Falls [past year] n(range)3(0–1)SD, standard deviation; BMI, Body Mass Index; FES-I, Falls Efficacy Scale – International, values < 20 indicating no, 20–27 a moderate, 28–64 a high fear of falling; POMA, Performance Oriented Mobility Assessment, consisting of a balance and gait score with lower scores indicate a higher risk of fallingBonferroni corrected post-hoc test reveals This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Freiburg and conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki (German Register of Clinical Trials No.: DRKS00016999).