The Relationship Between Measures of Postural Control in Concussion Assessment

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biomechanics
• Sports Medicine

Background:

• Postural sway is a key indicator of balance and neurological function.
• Concussion assessment often relies on balance tests to evaluate recovery.
• Standardized tests like mBESS, COBALT, and SOT are used to measure postural control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationships between postural sway performance across three common balance assessments: mBESS, COBALT, and SOT.
• To understand how these tests capture different aspects of postural control and sensory integration.

Main Methods:

• Twenty healthy young adults participated in the study.
• Participants completed mBESS (double, single, tandem stance), COBALT (head shake, vestibular ocular reflex cancellation on firm/foam), and SOT (C1-C6) conditions.
• Postural sway was measured using a force plate and analyzed with Spearman correlations.

Main Results:

• Moderate positive correlation between mBESS-tandem stance and COBALT head shake on foam (r = .643).
• Moderate negative correlations were found between mBESS stances and SOT-C6 (r = -.512 to -.523).
• COBALT and SOT conditions showed numerous moderate to good negative correlations, indicating shared variance in sensory integration assessment.

Conclusions:

• The mBESS demonstrated minimal relationship with COBALT and SOT, suggesting it may not fully challenge sensory integration compared to other tests.
• COBALT conditions showed fair to good associations with multiple SOT conditions, supporting their role in assessing sensory integration.
• The COBALT shows promise as a clinically feasible test for evaluating sensory integration following concussion.