Balance

Assessing Functional Capacity in Health Sciences Demo 6; Postural Balance/ Stability
Juhani Multanen, PhD-Student, Researcher Department of Health Sciences University of Jyväskyläjuhani.multanen@jyu.fi

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Posturography (Good Balance®) for balance measurements and training
Good Balance: • Is based on the force platform technique by quantification of fluctuations of center ofpressure (COP) • Enables postural control measurements in different static and dynamic testing conditions • Helps in training and analyzing balance and postural asymmetry through visual feedbackKTEY013 2

Getting started
• • • • Start the program by selecting the icon from Start/Programs/Good Balance Enter the name of the tester: ”Tester/New” Create a project: ”Project/New” Create a datasetfor a testee: ”Testee/New”  fill in the requisite fields

• Define a measurement from the main menus Measurement entry  a previously defined measurement type must be selected from the dropdown list commence measurement by selecting Start in the Measure Balance window
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Reading the results
• Movement of COP is expressed as sway velocity to anterior-posterior (mm/s) and medio-lateral(mm/s) direction or velocity moment (mm2/s) • In static tests the best result out of at least 2 measurements will be chosen according to the velocity moment (or A-P /M-L directions) • In dynamictests after 1 practice trial and 5 measurements, the shortest time out of the 5 measurements is the result

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Group assignment during the demo
• • In the small groups conduct one staticand one dynamic balance measurements to one volunter testee from your group Contemplate on test standardization:
- Balance measurement system - Test location and environment - The posture andlocation of testee on the platform - Instructions to testee - Motivation of testee - The avoidance of accidents - Something else…

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Register/print results and experiences of testee Contemplate on...