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Comparison of Postural Control Among College Students With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

Objectives

Impairments in postural stability are present in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but documentation of impairments as individuals age into adulthood are sparse and have yielded inconsistent results. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess postural control of college students with and without ASD during four conditions: eyes open and eyes closed, for both single- and double-leg stances.

Methods

Twenty participants (10 with ASD and 10 without ASD) between the ages of 18 and 30 performed three quiet standing trials in each of the four conditions. Antero-posterior (A-P) and medio-lateral (M-L) sway and sway velocity, as well as sway area and stance time, were calculated for each condition and compared between groups.

Results

In the double-leg eyes open and eyes closed conditions, A-P displacement and sway area were greater in individuals with ASD. There were no differences in sway between groups in the single-leg eyes open condition. Individuals with ASD demonstrated much shorter stance times than individuals without ASD in the single-leg eyes closed condition.

Conclusions

Young adults with ASD display less postural stability in both simple and complex balance tasks than young adults without ASD. It appears that the balance abnormalities reported in children with ASD persist into adulthood.

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Data Availability

All data are available at the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/yx7dh/?view_only=8dd78acbecc147ce8919154661c0749a).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Chico, 400 W. First St., Chico, CA, 95929-0330, USA

    Melissa A. Mache

  2. Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA, USA

    Teri A. Todd, Danielle N. Jarvis & Kyle C. Geary

Authors
  1. Melissa A. Mache
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  2. Teri A. Todd
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  3. Danielle N. Jarvis
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  4. Kyle C. Geary
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Contributions

MAM: collaborated with design of study, data analysis, and manuscript writing and editing. TAT: collaborated with design of study and manuscript writing and editing. DNJ: collaborated with data collection, data analysis, and manuscript writing and editing. KCG: collaborated with data collection, data analysis, and manuscript writing. All authors approved the final version of this manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melissa A. Mache.

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Ethics Approval

This research was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board of California State University, Chico.

Informed Consent

All participants provided informed consent prior to participating in the present study. The informed consent process was approved by the university institutional review board.

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Mache, M.A., Todd, T.A., Jarvis, D.N. et al. Comparison of Postural Control Among College Students With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder. Adv Neurodev Disord 5, 282–289 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41252-021-00204-y

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