STUDY OF NORMAL VALUES OF PROPRIOCEPTION BASED ON AGE

BACKGROUND: Proprioception is an important function which allows the brain to perceive the body’s position. It is a safety mechanism aiding the generation of movements to correct and maintain balance. During a return to sports for adults, it is essential to have a good postural control. However, this requirement is applied subjectively in a pediatric setting. The Biodex Stability System (BSS) is a validated instrument capable of evaluating proprioception by producing stability indexes. Unfortunately, the stability indexes for a healthy pediatric population and the associated characteristics have not yet been determined. PURPOSE: The primary objective was to establish normal pediatric values of proprioception using the BSS. The secondary objectives were to find correlations between various subgroups (sex, physical activity participation and joint laxity, etc) and the stability indexes. METHODS: An observational cohort study was done. Patients from July 2018 to September 2018 were included from the facture clinic. Inclusion/exclusion criteria were: (1) a consolidated upper limb fracture, (2) no previous history of lower limb injury, (3) no congenital anomalies of the lower limb or neuromuscular disease. Included subjects underwent 3 test trials of 20 seconds each of single-leg shoeless postural control with eyes open and at a stability level of 4. The overall stability index (OSI), anteroposterior stability index (APSI) and mediolateral stability index (MLSI) were noted. The protocol was conducted on both legs. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test will be used for the primary objective and, Pearson correlation for secondary objective. RESULTS: Seventy-one participants (29 girls and 42 boys) with a mean age of 12.75±2.2 years old and a mean Beighton laxity score of 2.5±2.5 were recruited. The mean left OSI is 4.4±3.1 and the mean right OSI is 4.5±3.3. When comparing the subgroups, we were able to find correlations between the body mass index (BMI) and the OSI for both legs (left: r= 0.312, p = 0.008; right: r= 0.437, p = 0.001). We did not find any other correlations for any other groups (sex, age and Beighton score). CONCLUSION: A larger sample size will be needed to establish normal values based on sex and skeletal maturity but a mean value for OSI for a normal pediatric population was established. This study illustrates that, in our pediatric population, an increase in BMI is associated with an increase in OSI. Therefore, children with a higher BMI could potentially benefit from a proprioception training program in order to prevent the occurrence of injuries.