Effect of Aging on Trunk Muscle Function and Its Influence on Falls Among Older Adults.

The objective was to determine whether trunk muscle function is influenced by the aging process and to identify if the trunk can be an important factor in older people's falls over a period of 1 year. The peak torque, rate of torque development, and torque steadiness of the trunk extensors and flexors were compared between a young group, older group (older adults with no episodes of falls), and older faller group (older adults who had suffered at least one fall episode over a period of 1 year) by one-way analysis of variance, followed by the post hoc Tukey test. The adjusted multivariate linear regression was applied to verify the association between the number of falls and the trunk parameters in older adults.