How Does Self-Perceived Unsteadiness Influence Balance and Gait in People With Diabetes? Preliminary Observations
Year: 2017
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: People with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) exhibit marked unsteadiness during gait (1), increasing their risk of falling 20-fold compared with their matched counterparts without diabetes (2). Unsteadiness and associated restrictions in activities of daily living predict depressive symptoms in patients with DPN (3), highlighting the negative spiral between DPN, unsteadiness, falls, and psychological distress (4). However, because unsteadiness has been assessed by self-report in most previous studies, it remains unknown whether a person’s perception of unsteadiness actually correlates with objective measures of balance and gait. This study aimed to assess self-perceived unsteadiness in patients with and without DPN as compared with people without diabetes and to investigate how self-perceived unsteadiness influences gait and balance control.
Three groups were investigated: patients with DPN (DPN group; neuropathy disability score [NDS] ≥6, vibration perception threshold [VPT] ≥25 V), patients with diabetes but no neuropathy (DM group; NDS ≤3, VPT ≤15 V [5]), and matched control subjects without diabetes (Table 1). Self-perceived unsteadiness was assessed using two items from the neuropathy-specific quality of life questionnaire (Neuro-QoL) asking about problems with balance experienced during walking and standing (6 …
Source: Diabetes Care
DOI: 10.2337/dc16-2183
Authors: Neil D. Reeves, Steven J. Brown, Milos Petrovic, Andrew J.M. Boulton, Loretta Vileikyte
Language: English
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Award: G7291270036
OpenAlex ID: W2589474388