Arm movement effect on balance.

The background research shows a high incidence of falls and loss of balance related injuries, which cause serious consequences to individual health and quality of life, as well as substantial healthcare impact in services and costs. The literature review emphasizes that arm movements have a potentially significant effect on balance, and indentifies the use of balance boards as a relevant and meaningful tool for dynamic balance evaluation. The primary objective of this initial study was to develop a method to test and evaluate the effect of arm movements on the maintenance of postural stability. Further we investigated the impact of dominant and non-dominant arms, the reaction time of arms, and the amount of activity of arms related to dynamic balance control. The study applied an accelerometer-based balance board test to measure postural stability as related to arm movements. The evaluation consists of accelerometers placed on the two arms and the balance board. Data were acquired from four different subjects and processed accordingly. The finding verified that arms play an important role in the improvement of balance. Our findings suggest that the dominant arm is more active in balance control and that the movement of arms most often occurs just prior to and during loss of balance. The results also suggest that the amount of arm movement activity directly relates to balance control and the use of the dominant arm.