Balance disorders in older persons: quantification with posturography.

We measured sway velocity using static and dynamic posturography in a group of young normal subjects and two groups of subjects older than 75 years; one older group considered their balance normal for their age, and the other reported imbalance. The latter group consisted of patients with documented peripheral and central vestibular disorders and patients with dizziness and imbalance of unknown cause. The velocity of sway was higher in older subjects than in younger subjects and in older subjects who reported imbalance than in age-matched controls. The difference was greater with dynamic posturography than with static posturography, but the posturography data provided little information about the cause of the imbalance and did not correlate with the frequency of reported falls.