People With Fibromyalgia Score Worse on Balance Test
The study involved only middle-aged people in order to preclude older age as a culprit in patients' falls, Jones says.
To find out whether balance problems could be to blame, the researchers employed computerized balance platform testing. "It tests the three components of balance -- visual, vestibular (spatial) and somatosensory," Jones says.
The test involves standing on a platform while watching a visual target. Pressure gauges under the platform record shifts in body sway as a person is subjected to conditions that are designed to make the person lose balance.
"How much you sway gives you information about balance," she says.
People with fibromyalgia scored worse on all three parts of the test than their healthy counterparts.
On the visual aspect of the balance test, the fibromyalgia group scored an average 0.68 while the healthy group scored an average of 0.87. In all three parts, 1 represents a perfect score.
On the spatial part of the test, the fibromyalgia group scored an average 0.41 vs. an average 0.67 in the healthy group. On the somatosensory part, scores were 0.91 and 0.98, respectively.