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Contribution of genetic and environmental effects to postural balance in older female twins

¹Department of Health Sciences and Finnish Centre for Interdisciplinary Gerontology, and ⁷Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, 40014 Jyväskylä; ²LIKES-Research Centre for Sports and Health Sciences, 40351 Jyväskylä; ³Finnish Brain Research and Rehabilitation Center Neuron, 71130 Kuopio; ⁴Department of Public Health, University of Turku, 20014 Turku; ⁵Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki; and ⁶Department of Mental Health, National Public Health Institute, 00300 Helsinki, Finland

Submitted 26 June 2003 ; accepted in final form 2 September 2003

The aim of the present study was to determine the relative roles of genetic and environmental influences on postural balance in older women. The participants were 97 monozygotic (MZ) and 102 dizygotic (DZ) female twins, aged 64–76 yr. Postural sway was measured during side-by-side stance with eyes open and eyes closed, and during semitandem stance with eyes open on a force platform. Sway data were condensed into four first-order and one second-order latent factors. The second-order factor, named balance, incorporates sway data from multiple tests and thus best describes the phenotype of postural balance. The contribution of genetic and environmental influences on the variability of the latent factors was assessed by using structural equation modeling. Additive genetic influences accounted for 35% and shared environmental influences accounted for 24% of the total variance in the balance factor. In the present study, postural balance in older women had a moderate genetic component. Genetic influences on postural balance may be mediated through gene variation in the systems that control posture. The finding that individual environmental influences accounted for almost one-half of the variance in postural balance points to the potential of targeted interventions to maintain and improve balance control in older persons.

aging; postural control; postural sway; heritability

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