Balance, gait, functionality and strength: comparison between elderly fallers and non-fallers

BACKGROUND: Accidental falls are a major health problem related to aging and affect one in every three elderly individuals over the age of sixty. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and compare the muscle strength, gait kinematics parameters, and performance in functional tests between elderly subjects with and without a prior history of falls. In addition, the association between the history of falls and the variables that demonstrated differences between groups were tested. METHOD: 62 elderly subjects participated in the study and were allocated to the group with falls history (FG; n=20; 68.0±6.9 years...