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SENSORY ORGANIZATION TEST CONDITIONS INFLUENCE POSTURAL STRATEGY RATHER THAN FOOTWEAR OR WORKLOAD

Abstract

Alana Joy Turner1, Harish Chander1, Sachini N.K. Kodithuwakku Arachchige1, Adam Knight1, Chip Wade2, John C. Garner3. 1Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS. 2Auburn University, Auburn, AL. 3Troy University, Troy, AL.

Background: Postural strategies such as ankle, hip, or combined ankle-hip strategies are used to maintain optimal postural stability, which can be influenced by the footwear type and physio-logical workload. Purpose: This paper reports previously unreported postural strategy scores during the six conditions of the sensory organization test (SOT). Methods: Fourteen healthy males (age: 23.6±1.2 years; height: 181±5.3 cm; mass: 89.2±14.6 kg) were tested for postural strategy adopted during SOT in three occupational footwear (steel-toed work boot, tactical work boot; low-top work shoe, every 30 minutes during a 4-hour simulated occupational workload. Postural strategy scores were analyzed using a 3 (footwear) × 6 (SOT conditions) within-subjects repeated measures analysis of variance with all nine points of testing (0 min to 240 min) averaged repeated measures analysis of variance (RMANOVA) and a 9 (time points of testing) × 6 (SOT conditions) within-subjects RMANOVA with all footwear averaged at 0.05 alpha level. Results: The 3 × 6 RMANOVA revealed significant main effect differences for SOT conditions [F (5, 65) = 217.206, p < 0.001, ƞp2 = 0.944] and the 9 × 6 RMANOVA revealed significant main effect for time points tested [F (8, 104) = 2.635, p = 0.011, ƞp2 = 0.169] and significant main effect differences for SOT conditions [F (5, 65) = 215.795, p < 0.001, ƞp2 = 0.943]. Significant differences among postural strategy scores were only evident between SOT conditions, and but not between footwear type or the workload. Conclusion: Findings indicate that occupational footwear and occupational workload did not cause a significant change in reliance on postural strategies. The significant changes in postural strategy scores were due to the availability of accurate and/or conflicting sensory feedback, during SOT conditions. In SOT conditions where all three, sensory feedback was available, ankle strategy was predominantly adopted, while more reliance on hip strategy occurred in conditions with absent or conflicting sensory feedback.

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