Introduction: Comparison of sway parameters of visually impaired participants to that of the sighted population may give insight into the intrinsic risk of falls relative on various surfaces. Sway is a natural mechanism to adjust posture and maintain balance. But the sway characteristics on uneven surfaces are ill explored. There is a paucity of evidence on baseline values of sway amplitude in visually impaired women in comparison to sighted women, which underpins the importance of this study. Methods: Eighteen visually impaired young women and an equal number of age-matched sighted peers were recruited by convenience to this prospective observational study. Sway amplitude of the participants were measured using a sway meter on three different surfaces, with eyes opened and closed conditions, using videography and analyzed using Kinovea motion analyzing software. Demographics and participant characteristics were summarized using descriptive statistics. The comparison of sway amplitude in both directions were performed using independent samples t-test. Results: Visually impaired women demonstrated lower amplitude of sway than sighted young women, irrespective of surface. Discussion: There was a gradual increase in sway amplitude as the standing surfaces changed from even to sand and pebbles, respectively, for both groups. Information for Practitioners: Contrary to the existing evidence, the results of this study indicate that visually impaired young individuals may not be at higher intrinsic risk of falls on various terrains than their sighted peers. The authors hypothesize that the lower sway among visually impaired participants can be attributed to the learned strategy for safety from exposure to real-life pragmatic environments during everyday activities, which enabled them to adopt postural strategies as a safety measure. Hence, this strategy can potentially be used in dynamic situations to decrease the propensity for falls during ambulation in visually impaired individuals.

简介：将视障参与者的摇摆参数与有视力人群的摇摆参数进行比较，可以深入了解在各种表面上相对跌倒的内在风险。摇摆是一种调整姿势和保持平衡的自然机制。但是不平坦表面上的摇摆特性没有得到很好的探索。与有视力的女性相比，视力受损女性的摇摆幅度基线值缺乏证据，这支持了本研究的重要性。方法：为方便这项前瞻性观察研究，招募了 18 名视力受损的年轻女性和同等数量的视力正常的同龄人。参与者的摇摆幅度是在三个不同的表面上使用摇摆仪测量的，在睁眼和闭眼的条件下，使用摄像并使用 Kinovea 运动分析软件进行分析。使用描述性统计总结人口统计和参与者特征。使用独立样本t检验对两个方向的摇摆幅度进行比较。结果：与有视力的年轻女性相比，视力受损的女性表现出的摇摆幅度较低，无论表面如何。讨论：随着站立表面分别从平坦变为沙子和鹅卵石，两组的摇摆幅度逐渐增加。给从业者的信息：与现有证据相反，这项研究的结果表明，视力受损的年轻人在各种地形上跌倒的内在风险可能并不高于视力正常的同龄人。作者假设视障参与者的摇摆度较低可归因于在日常活动中暴露于现实生活中的实用环境中所学的安全策略，这使他们能够采用姿势策略作为安全措施。因此，这种策略可以潜在地用于动态情况下，以减少视障人士在行走过程中跌倒的倾向。