The purpose of the present study was to investigate the differences of postural control characteristics in static and dynamic balance tests between healthy younger and elderly people. The subjects were 39 young and 51 elderly community-dwelling men and women had no symptoms of dizziness or imbalance. The static balance test was designed provide measures of body sway area under three different conditions: with eyes open (EO), with eyes closed (EC), and with visual feedback (VF) about the performance from the computer screen. The dynamic balance tests comprised measurements of:(a) rhythmic body sway from side to and anterior-posterior direction to 50% of the subject's theoretical limits-of-stability (LOS), (b) body sway to 8-points positioned in a ellipse, the perimeter of which corresponds to 75% of the LOS. Data reflecting the average magnitude of the movement path was expressed as a percentage of the LOS (%LOS). No significant differences in the maximum percentage area (% Max Area) under three different conditions were found between the younger and elderly people. Significant differences, however, were found between the LOS percentage of rhythmic or body sway to 8-points in elderly and those in younger people (p< 0.05-0.01). The results suggest that the dynamic balance measurements studied are more sensitive to unrelated changes in elderly people than the static balance measures.
