Original StudyMuscle Strength Rather Than Muscle Mass Is Associated With Standing Balance in Elderly Outpatients
Section snippets
Setting
This cross-sectional study included 207 community-dwelling elderly who were referred to a geriatric outpatient clinic in a middle-sized teaching hospital (Bronovo Hospital, The Hague, Netherlands) for a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) between March 2011 and January 2012. CGA was performed during a 2-hour visit including questionnaires and physical and cognitive measurements. All tests were performed by trained nurses or medical staff. Medical charts were retrospectively evaluated. The
Elderly Outpatient Characteristics
The characteristics of elderly outpatients are presented in Table 1. Mean age was 81.9 years. 64.5 Percent of the elderly outpatients had at least one fall incident in the 12 months prior to the visit to the outpatient clinic.
Ability to maintain standing balance
The percentage of elderly outpatients able to maintain balance in different standing conditions is shown in Figure 1. In more difficult standing conditions, fewer elderly outpatients were able to maintain standing balance. In the standing positions with eyes open, 183
Discussion
Muscle strength is positively associated with the ability to maintain standing balance in community-dwelling elderly referred to a geriatric outpatient clinic. Muscle mass did not associate with the ability to maintain standing balance in most balance conditions, although a positive association was found between ALM/height2 and tandem stance with eyes open. Muscle strength and muscle mass were not associated with quality of balance as measured with CoP movement. This is the first study that
Conclusion
Muscle strength rather than muscle mass is associated with the ability to maintain standing balance in community-dwelling elderly referred to a geriatric outpatient clinic. This indicates the additional value of assessment of muscle strength in clinical practice. Improvement of muscle strength is a target for potential intervention for impaired standing balance in this population of elderly outpatients with multimorbidity.
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A.Y.B., J.H.P., and D.L. contributed equally to this article.
This study was supported by the seventh framework program MYOAGE (HEALTH-2007-2.4.5-10), 050-060-810 Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging, and by the Dutch Technology Foundation STW, which is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and partly funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture, and Innovation. No conflicts of interest.