Acute and Acclimated Effects of Wearing Compression Garments on Balance Control in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

Falls are very serious health concerns among older adults. Providing additional cutaneous and proprioceptive feedback to older adults may enhance their balance control and therefore reduce the incidents of falls. This study aimed to investigate the acute and acclimated effect of wearing waist-to-above-ankle compression garments (CGs) on balance control in community-dwelling older adults. Thirty-one older adults participated in the study. The Timed Up and Go, Berg Balance Scale, and the Fall Risk Test of the Biodex Balance System were used in a random order to examine balance control in three testing sessions 1 week apart. Results indicated wearing CGs had a significant impact on the Timed Up and Go test (p < .001), Berg Balance Scale (p = .001), and the Fall Risk Test (p = .001). For the Timed Up and Go test, participants exhibited significant improvement in both the acute (8.68 vs. 7.91 s) and acclimated effect (7.91 vs. 7.41 s) of wearing CGs. For the Berg Balance Scale, participants showed significant improvement after wearing CGs for 1 week in comparison to the no CGs condition (55.77 vs. 55.39 points). For the Fall Risk Test, participants showed a significant improvement in the acute effect of wearing CGs in comparison to the no CGs condition (1.55° vs. 1.31°). This exploratory study showed that wearing waist-to-above-ankle CGs provided a positive impact on balance control in healthy community-dwelling older adults. It lays the foundation for future studies with a larger sample size to investigate the potential benefits of wearing CGs in individuals with balance control deficits and/or other comorbidities.