ASSESSING STATIC AND DYNAMIC POSTURAL CONTROL IN A HEALTHY POPULATION

Static postural control testing is often conducted by clinicians and athletic trainers for use with athletes who have sustained a concussion. Dynamic postural control involves the body's response to perturbation of the center of mass and may offer additional insight that static testing cannot capture. The objective of this study was to assess the reliability and feasibility of a balance protocol consisting of both static and dynamic postural control assessments with a healthy, adult population. Subjects stood in both unipedal and bipedal stances on a force plate to capture quantitative data regarding the center of pressure over time. Further, subjects completed the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS), a static measure, and a modified version of the Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT), a dynamic measure. Reliability with the BESS was limited, while moderate to strong reliability was obtained for the modified SEBT. Unipedal stances were associated with a greater variance than bipedal stances for both the BESS and force plate protocol. These assessments will be applied within a pediatric populations to determine the validity of their use. Further postural control research is necessary to determine the most viable assessments for use within an active, pediatric population.