Influence of breathing patterns and orthostatic stress on postural control in older adults

To investigate the influence of breathing patterns and blood pressure behavior postural control in older adults.

A total of 20 older adults carried out spontaneous, controlled (15 cycles/min) and deep (6 cycles/min) breathing trials, in random order. In this session, the heart rate was recorded continuously and blood pressure measured every 3 min. In addition, the challenge from sitting to an active standing position was carried out with eyes closed during 6 min on a baropodometer plate with electromyography recording. The root mean square (RMS) of electromyography was calculated.

There were significant differences in the postural control with spontaneous breathing from the first minute (center of pressure [COP]-area 216.40 ± 116.70 mm² ) in comparison with the third minute (COP-area 79.35 ± 68.11 mm² ; d = 0.89; P < 0.01) and the sixth minute (COP-area 70.24 ± 41.26 mm² ; d = 0.60; P < 0.05) of active standing. Furthermore, deep breathing significantly increases the COP-area (158.50 ± 126.2 mm² ) at the sixth minute of active standing in comparison with spontaneous breathing (70.24 ± 41.26 mm² ; d = 0.80; P < 0.01). There were also significant differences in systolic blood pressure during spontaneous breathing between the baseline measures (sitting position 123 ± 11 mmHg) and the first minute of active standing (117 ± 13 mmHg; d = 0.24; P < 0.05). Furthermore, electromyography activity of the tibialis anterior increased during the deep (17.52 ± 9.21 RMS) and controlled breathing (16.75 ± 5.26 RMS) compared with the spontaneous condition (14.93 ± 5.56 RMS; d = 0.17; P < 0.05).

The present data provide important insight into the respiratory and hemodynamics effects of postural control in older adults. The current data confirm that deep breathing causes periodic perturbation in the neuromuscular compensation of the lower limbs. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 692-697.