Ageing is associated with changes in body balance mechanism. The gold standard assessment for body balance is posturography. However, because of the high cost constraints, not many health centers are equipped with the equipment. Nintendo Wii balance board (WBB) has been reported as a potential tool to be used to assess body balance and sway. Also, because WBB is more economical and portable, it has greater potential to be used in primary health centers and community settings. The objective of this study was to compare balance measures using BRU™ and WBB among young and older healthy adults during quiet standing. Thirty three young (26.9±5.6 years) and 33 older adults (65.6±4.4 years) were randomly tested on both equipments. Subjects performed 30sec trial for each of the four testing conditions: quiet standing on a firm or compliant surface (foam) with eyes-open and closed. The results showed significant differences in balance measurements between all four testing conditions and age groups using both equipments.This study also found significant positive correlations between the COPand sway velocity, SV (of the BRU™) and COB (of the WBB) in all test conditions. These results indicated that WBB coupled with its commercially available software could potentially be used as a screening tool for balance assessment in primary health centres.
Wii balance board (WBB), Balance Rehabilitation Unit (BRU&trade ; ), centre of pressure (COP), centre of base (COB), sway velocity (SV)

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the effect of ageing on speech perception in quiet and in noise, with noise directed from front, right and left. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Sixty Malay native adults with normal or near normal hearing comprising of 20 young adults (21 to 39 years old), 20 middle aged (40 to 59 years old) and 20 older adults (60 to 74 years old) participated in this study. Their speech perception ability was measured using the Malay Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) in four test conditions; 1) in quiet (HINT Q), 2) with noise from front (HINT NF), 3) with noise from right (HINT NR), and 4) with noise from left (HINT NL). Reception thresholds for sentences (RTSs) were measured in each of the aforementioned conditions using an adaptive method. RESULTS: The results showed that, 1) genuine age-related decline was found in speech perception performance in HINT (NF), 2) hearing threshold was a major determinant differentiating speech perception performance for HINT (Q) and HINT (NL) conditions, and 3) speech perception performance for HINT (NR) was determined by both age and hearing threshold. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that, in older adults, while hearing thresholds affect speech perception in quiet, other factors such as central auditory processing and cognitive functions might be more important determinant factors for speech perception performance in noise.
Adult ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Middle Aged ; Noise* ; Speech Perception* ; Young Adult

The present study aimed to determine the test-retest reliability of subjective visual horizontal(SVH) testing when tested with solid and dotted line images. In this repeated measures study,36 healthy young Malaysian adults (mean age=23.3±2.3 years, 17 males and 19 females)were enrolled. All of them were healthy and had no hearing, vestibular, balance, or vision problems.The SVH angles were recorded from each participant in an upright body position using acomputerized device. They were asked to report their horizontality perception for solid and dottedline images (in the presence of a static black background). After 1 week, the SVH procedurewas repeated. The test-retest reliability of SVH was found to be good for both solid line[intraclass correlation (ICC)=0.80] and dotted line (ICC=0.78). As revealed by Bland-Altmanplots, for each visual image, the agreements of SVH between the two sessions were within theclinically accepted criteria (±2°). The SVH testing was found to be temporally reliable, which canbe clinically beneficial. Both solid and dotted lines in the SVH testing are reliable to be usedamong young adults. J Audiol Otol 2020;24(2):107-111

Ageing is associated with changes in body balance mechanism. The gold standard assessment for body balance is posturography. However, because of the high cost constraints, not many health centers are equipped with the equipment. Nintendo Wii balance board (WBB) has been reported as a potential tool to be used to assess body balance and sway. Also, because WBB is more economical and portable, it has greater potential to be used in primary health centers and community settings. The objective of this study was to compare balance measures using BRU™ and WBB among young and older healthy adults during quiet standing. Thirty three young (26.9±5.6 years) and 33 older adults (65.6±4.4 years) were randomly tested on both equipments. Subjects performed 30sec trial for each of the four testing conditions: quiet standing on a firm or compliant surface (foam) with eyes-open and closed. The results showed significant differences in balance measurements between all four testing conditions and age groups using both equipments.This study also found significant positive correlations between the COPand sway velocity, SV (of the BRU™) and COB (of the WBB) in all test conditions. These results indicated that WBB coupled with its commercially available software could potentially be used as a screening tool for balance assessment in primary health centres.

The aim of this study was to detemine the effectiveness of Customized vestibular rehabilitation (CVR) in addition to the standard Canalith repositioning maneuver (CRM) on static balance among adults with posterior canal Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). In this randomised controlled trial, 28 adults with idiopathic unilateral posterior canal BPPV were randomized to either the control or experimental group. The experimental group (n=14, mean age: 50.71±9.88 years) received CVR in addition to CRM, and the control group (n=14, mean age: 54.36±8.55 years) received only CRM for 6 weeks. Measurements of static balance (postural sway) using a portable kinematic sensor were performed at baseline, four and six weeks after treatment for both groups while standing on firm and foam surface with eyes open (EO) and closed (EC). Only standing on foam surface with EC was observed to have a significant interaction effect, F (2, 52) =5.28, p<0.05. This suggest that the groups were affected differently by the intervention and greater improvement was demonstrated in the experimental group. Post hoc test showed that a significant difference (p<0.05) in static balance was shown between baseline and 6th week after intervention. The results of our study indicate that CVR in addition to CRM improved static balance in adults with UPC BPPV at 6th week after intervention for persons with BPPV.