Factors of one-leg balancing and beam-walking in persons with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the factors of one foot balancing and beam-walking in persons with intellectual disabilities (ID). There were 181 subjects with ID (male, 126; female, 55; 14 persons with autism; 22 with Down's Syndrome (DS)). One foot balancing was measured with eyes open and with eyes closed. In the beam-walking test, the subjects were asked to walk on five types of beam 3 meters in length. A stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the results. The dependent variables were the one foot balancing score (sec) with eyes open and with eyes closed and the beam-walking score (from 0 to 5), and the independents were sex, age, height (cm), weight (kg), IQ, presence/absence of autism, and presence/absence of DS. The results were as follows: (1) The one foot balancing with eyes open only related to IQ. Persons with a higher IQ showed a higher score in all the three balance tests than those with a lower IQ. The one foot balancing with eyes closed correlated with IQ and presence/absence of autism. Autistic subjects stood longer than persons with other IDs. The beam walking correlated with IQ, presence/absence of autism, and presence/absence of DS. Autistic subjects attained a higher score than subjects with other IDs, and DS subjects had lower scores. These characteristics of balance in subjects with ID are discussed in terms of executive function, motor dysfunction, and compensatory strategies.