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A Systematic Review of the Relationship between Physical Activities in Sports or Daily Life and Postural Sway in Upright Stance

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Abstract

Background

In many sports, maintaining balance is necessary to compete at a high level. Also, in many health problems, balance is impaired. Postural sway (PS) is often used as an indicator of upright balance control, and physical activity (PA) might enhance balance control. However, the relationship between PS and PA has never been systematically reviewed.

Objective

Our objective was to summarize the evidence regarding the relationship between PS in upright bipedal and unipedal standing and PA.

Methods

We conducted a literature search in MEDLINE, EmBase, CINAHL, the Cochrane Database, and PEDro, up to March 2012, with no limit on the starting date. Characteristics and methodological aspects of each article were extracted by two reviewers. We used centre of pressure (CoP) velocity, and variables related to the CoP area, to compare studies.

Results

A total of 39 articles were reviewed from an initial yield of 2,058. Of these 39 studies, 37 used a comparative design, one was a cohort study, and one was a randomized controlled trial.

Conclusion

The main conclusion was that in general, sport practitioners sway less than controls, and high-level athletes sway less than low-level athletes. Additionally, we identified specific effects dependent on the use of vision, sport-specific postures, and frequency and duration of the (sports) activity. PS in unperturbed bipedal stance appears to have limited sensitivity to detect subtle differences between groups of healthy people.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Eric Stutterheim for translating the article of LaRue et al. [25].

The authors declare no financial or personal relationship with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work on this manuscript. No sources of funding were used to assist in the preparation of this review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Group Lifestyle and Health, Faculty of Health Care, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Bolognalaan 101, 3584 CJ, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Henri Kiers, Harriët Wittink & Luc Vanhees

  2. Faculty of Human Movement Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jaap van Dieën

  3. Department of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Care, University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Henri Kiers & Henk Dekkers

  4. Department Rehabilitation Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Luc Vanhees

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  1. Henri Kiers
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Correspondence to Henri Kiers.

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Kiers, H., van Dieën, J., Dekkers, H. et al. A Systematic Review of the Relationship between Physical Activities in Sports or Daily Life and Postural Sway in Upright Stance. Sports Med 43, 1171–1189 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-013-0082-5

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