Dynamics Study of Ankle Joint during Quiet Standing Balance Control with Emphasis on Dominant and Non-dominant Lower Limb

Purpose: The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of dominant lower limb on the correlation between some of the dynamic variables of ankle joint and center of mass during quiet standing balance control. Methods: Twelve healthy females with no known neurological or musculoskeletal disorders, with the mean age of 26±3.5 years, participated in this study. Motion analysis system, force platform and Visual3D software were utilized in order to measure and compute the research variables. The relationship between research variables was evaluated using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. T test and One-way ANOVA were used to examine the effect of dominant leg on the correlations. Results: Findings indicated the correlation between ankle joint moment and center of mass displacement (r=0.95) was higher than the correlation between ankle angular displacement and center of mass displacement (r=0.84). It seems that the leg factor (dominance and nondominance) does not influence the correlation of angular displacement of ankle joint and center of mass displacement. However, it influenced the correlation between ankle joint moment and center of mass displacement. Conclusion: Therefore according to the present study it can be said that the kinetic variables of ankle joints are more important than kinematic variables for the prediction of center of mass displacement. In addition, it is suggested that in order to evaluate the lower extremity dynamics, during balance control, dominant and non-dominant lower limbs of the subjects be noticed too.