Posture changes in diabetes mellitus

The weight distribution and postural sway was measured in diabetic subjects with, and without, neuropathy, and then compared with age and sex matched non-diabetic subjects using a cheap and highly portable sway plate - SwayWeigh. The SwayWeigh was found to be very practical and the results obtained confirmed the increased postural sway in the absence of proprioceptive information in neuropathy subjects. The study shows that peripheral neuropathy increases the postural sway especially in the absence of visual clues but this did not result in postural strategies causing significant limb load asymmetry.