International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Open Access

Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Publications

• Mini Review   
  Might Vestibular “Noise” Cause Subclinical Balance Impairment and Falls?
  Author(s): Andrew R Wagner*, Ajit MW Chaudhari and Daniel M Merfeld
  
  Falls are the leading causes of accidental injury in older adults and directly contribute to more than 600,000 deaths each year worldwide. Although the issue of falls is complex, balance dysfunction is one the principal contributors to the heightened incidence of falls in older adults. A nationally representative survey of older adults in the United States showed that an inability to stand on a foam pad with the eyes closed was associated with more than a six-fold increase in the odds of reporting “difficulty with falls.” As stability in the “eyes closed, on foam” condition is reliant upon intact vestibular cues, these data implicate age-related vestibular loss as a potential contributor to falls, yet, the specific causal mechanism explaining the link between age-related vestibular loss and imbalance/falls was not known. Here we review rec.. View More»
  

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