Balance Impairments in Adolescents Post-Sports Concussion during Single and Dual Tasks

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to explore changes in sway during single tasks and dual tasks in adolescents with and without sport concussion (SC). Methods: A cross-sectional study of 57 adolescents with an SC and 67 healthy participants was compared on static balance during single- and dual-task conditions on hard and compliant surfaces. Postural sway was assessed using a force platform (with and without a foam pad) during three cognitive conditions. Results: Individuals with SC had greater sway compared with healthy participants (p < 0.05). There were no significant interactions of groups and the task conditions. Across both groups, higher sway was observed in the compliant surface condition compared with the hard surface condition (p < 0.001). Greater sway was measured in the single task compared with the dual-task conditions (p < 0.05), and the perceptual inhibition task generated greater sway than the spatial discrimination task (p < 0.05). Discussion: Several factors were associated with increased sway, including compliant surface, dual task, and perceptual inhibition tasks. However, the root-mean-square in the anteroposterior direction was the only measure that showed a difference between the two groups, while only the normalized path length sway measures illustrated the difference between the dual- and single-task conditions.