Abstract:
Objectives: Researchers have focused their attention on balance in the elderly because there is a significant correlation between balance and fall. Therefore, it is very important to identify the factors that can affect elderly balance. The aim of this study was to investigate relation between sustained attention and balance in elderly. Method: This cross sectional study was conducted in 2013 in Semnan city. Convenience sampling was used to enroll 50 old people according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Sustained attention was measured by continued performance test and static and dynamic balance was evaluated by biodex system. Data was analyzed using SPSS 16 software. Having a normal distribution via Kolmogorov smirnov test, the relationship between each characteristic was assessed through using Pearson correlation coefficient and independent t test. Results: The participants’ mean (±SD) age was 65.48±4.36 years, static balance with eyes open 3.64±2.69, eyes closed 4.10±2.47, dynamic balance with eyes open 4.55±2, eyes closed 6.65±1.98 and omission error was 2.56±4.11. Among the four balance indexes and Sustained attention, Pearson correlation was only significant in dynamic balance with eyes closed and sustained attention. Discussion: Considering the significant correlation between sustained attention and dynamic balance with eyes closed, it can be said that this correlation will become significant by increasing the difficulty level of the balance task.
Machine summary:
Objectives: Keywords: balance, sustained attention and the elderly Submitted: 21 October 2013 Accepted: 10 December 2013 Introduction Increasing the life span, quality of life and general health in old people, as a part of the society, are among important issues in recent studies (1).
Some research have reported the sustained attention reduction as a risk factor to increase the old people’s falling (13) and many studies have investigated the relation between selective and divided attention and balance or falling in different diseases like Parkinson, stroke and dementia.
The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between sustained attention and the sample’s balance (both static and dynamic) that was tested in two conditions (eyes opened and closed) in the elderly.
Because of the effect of different factors on elderly balance and attention, people with a history of following problems were excluded from our study: knee or ankle operation (15), diabetes, high blood pressure, aural problem (16), low back pain in the last 6 months, vertigo, faint or amnesia, heart disease, stroke ,multiple sclerosis (17), arthritis (16), sever musculoskeletal problem , alzheimer, parkinson, serious visual problem or visual problems which are not removed by glasses (18), having sever pain that prevented the person from balance evaluation and performing CPT, and using paregorics or alcohol in last 48 hours.
The result of our study did not show a significant relation between sustained attention and static balance with open or closed eyes.
In our study, there was a significant relation between dynamic balance with closed eyes and sustained attention.