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Foam pads properties and their effects on posturography in participants of different weight

BACKGROUND: Foam pads are increasingly used on force platforms during balance assessments in order to produce increased instability thereby permitting the measurement of enhanced posturographic parameters. A variety of foam pads providing different material properties have thus been used, although i...

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Autores principales: Gosselin, Guy, Fagan, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4308009/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25648275
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12998-014-0045-4
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author Gosselin, Guy
Fagan, Michael
author_facet Gosselin, Guy
Fagan, Michael
author_sort Gosselin, Guy
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Foam pads are increasingly used on force platforms during balance assessments in order to produce increased instability thereby permitting the measurement of enhanced posturographic parameters. A variety of foam pads providing different material properties have thus been used, although it is still unclear which characteristics produce the most effective and reliable tests. Furthermore, the effects of participant bodyweight on the performance of the foam pads and outcome of the test are unknown. This project investigated how different foam samples affected postural sway velocity in participants of different weights. METHOD: Four foam types were tested according to a modified American Society for Testing and Materials standard method for testing flexible cellular materials. Thirty-six healthy male factory workers divided into three groups according to body mass were tested three times for each of the 13 randomly-selected experimental situations for changes in postural sway velocity in this cross-over study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to compare the results and evaluate the difference in sway velocity between mass groups. RESULTS: For the materials considered here, the modulus of elasticity of the foam pads when compressed by 25% of their original heights was inversely proportional to their density. The largest changes in postural sway velocity were measured when the pads of highest stiffness were used, with memory foam pads being the least likely to produce significant changes. CONCLUSIONS: The type of foam pads used in posturography is indeed important. Our study shows that the samples with a higher modulus of elasticity produced the largest change in postural sway velocity during quiet stance. The results suggest that foam pads used for static computerised posturography should 1) possess a higher modulus of elasticity and 2) show linear deformation properties matched to the participants’ weight.
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spelling pubmed-43080092015-02-03 Foam pads properties and their effects on posturography in participants of different weight Gosselin, Guy Fagan, Michael Chiropr Man Therap Research BACKGROUND: Foam pads are increasingly used on force platforms during balance assessments in order to produce increased instability thereby permitting the measurement of enhanced posturographic parameters. A variety of foam pads providing different material properties have thus been used, although it is still unclear which characteristics produce the most effective and reliable tests. Furthermore, the effects of participant bodyweight on the performance of the foam pads and outcome of the test are unknown. This project investigated how different foam samples affected postural sway velocity in participants of different weights. METHOD: Four foam types were tested according to a modified American Society for Testing and Materials standard method for testing flexible cellular materials. Thirty-six healthy male factory workers divided into three groups according to body mass were tested three times for each of the 13 randomly-selected experimental situations for changes in postural sway velocity in this cross-over study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to compare the results and evaluate the difference in sway velocity between mass groups. RESULTS: For the materials considered here, the modulus of elasticity of the foam pads when compressed by 25% of their original heights was inversely proportional to their density. The largest changes in postural sway velocity were measured when the pads of highest stiffness were used, with memory foam pads being the least likely to produce significant changes. CONCLUSIONS: The type of foam pads used in posturography is indeed important. Our study shows that the samples with a higher modulus of elasticity produced the largest change in postural sway velocity during quiet stance. The results suggest that foam pads used for static computerised posturography should 1) possess a higher modulus of elasticity and 2) show linear deformation properties matched to the participants’ weight. BioMed Central 2015-01-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4308009/ /pubmed/25648275 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12998-014-0045-4 Text en © Gosselin and Fagan; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Gosselin, Guy
Fagan, Michael
Foam pads properties and their effects on posturography in participants of different weight
title Foam pads properties and their effects on posturography in participants of different weight
title_full Foam pads properties and their effects on posturography in participants of different weight
title_fullStr Foam pads properties and their effects on posturography in participants of different weight
title_full_unstemmed Foam pads properties and their effects on posturography in participants of different weight
title_short Foam pads properties and their effects on posturography in participants of different weight
title_sort foam pads properties and their effects on posturography in participants of different weight
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4308009/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25648275
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12998-014-0045-4
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