CLINICS 2011;66(9):1513-1518 CLINICAL SCIENCE DOI:10.1590/S1807-59322011000900001 Adiposity and postural balance control: Correlations between bioelectrical impedance and stabilometric signals in elderly Brazilian women Mı´riam Raquel Meira Mainenti, E´ rika de Carvalho Rodrigues, Juliana Fla´ via de Oliveira, Arthur de Sa´ Ferreira, Cristina Ma´ rcia Dias, Andre´ Luı´s dos Santos Silva Augusto Motta University Center (UNISUAM) - Postgraduate Program of Rehabilitation Sciences, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between body adiposity and postural control in elderly women. INTRODUCTION: Aging and obesity account for a significant portion of healthcare spending. Life expectancy is increasing worldwide, and Rio de Janeiro has the largest proportion of elderly residents of all Brazilian states. METHODS: A total of 45 women underwent bioelectrical impedance analysis, waist circumference measurements, weight and height measurements, and stabilometric tests in eight different stance conditions (opened and closed bases with both eyes opened and closed and right and left tandem and unilateral stances with eyes opened). During unilateral stances, the number of hand or foot contacts was counted. RESULTS: Weight, body mass index, waist circumference, fat percentage, and fat mass showed statistically significant (p,0.05) and positive correlations with the number of contacts made during unilateral stances. The subjects with greater fat mass showed significantly higher anterior-posterior standard deviation and range when their eyes were closed. The sway area was also greater for this group in opened base when their eyes were closed. DISCUSSION: The results relating body adiposity and postural control can be explained by the difficulty of maintaining a greater quantity of body fat mass within the limits of the individual support base, especially while assuming a unilateral stance. CONCLUSION: The subjects with a greater fat mass exhibited poor balance control, indicating that body adiposity level was associated with postural control in the elderly women examined in the present study. KEYWORDS: Body composition; Body fat distribution; Biomechanics; Musculoskeletal equilibrium; Aging. Mainenti MRM, Rodrigues EC, Oliveira JF, Ferreira AS, Dias CM, Silva ALS. Adiposity and postural balance control: Correlations between bioelectrical impedance and stabilometric signals in elderly Brazilian women. Clinics. 2011;66(9):1513-1518. Received for publication on January 25, 2011; First review for publication on March 28, 2011; Accepted for publication on May 12, 2011 E-mail: miriam.mainenti@hotmail.com Tel.: 55 21 3882-9841 INTRODUCTION The number of individuals over age 60 is increasing worldwide. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 12.8% of the popula- tion is considered to be elderly, and nationwide statistics show that the number of elderly people living alone increased by 16% between 1991 and 2000.1 The number of obese individuals in Brazil is also increasing; 38.8 million Brazilian adults are either overweight or obese, correspond- ing to 40% of the adult population.2 In the United States, 66.3% of all adults over 20 years old and 71% of those over 60 years old are overweight or obese.3 It has been well Copyright 2011 CLINICS – This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non- commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. established that aging is associated with modifications in body composition, including decreased lean mass4,5 and increased truncal fat.6 This ‘‘sarcopenic obesity’’ influences normal walking speed and mobility disability,7 modifies balance control,8 and decreases stability limits in those with advanced obesity.9 The body mass index (BMI) is a simple proportion of weight-for-height that is commonly used to classify indivi- duals as overweight or obese. Despite the fact that it is a widely accepted measurement,10 BMI is unable to sepa- rately quantify body fat composition. The use of body fat measures instead of weight measures is preferable for determining an individual’s possible health risks for cardiovascular diseases even when weight is corrected for height. The bioelectrical impedance method is a fast, noninvasive, easy-to-implement, and low-cost technique that is used to estimate body fat.11 This method requires little collaboration from the patient and reduces inter- and 1513