The Influence of General Low Frequency Vibration on Posture Stability

The work presents the research and analysis concerning general low frequency vibration and its influence on posture stability. The research was conducted in two phases: a group exposed to vibration - August 2006, a control group: November 2006 in Krynica-Zdrój. An exposed group (29 participants/took part in 19 training sessions, each lasting 20 min, of low frequency vibration, standing position) applied to each participant at fixed time of the day. The low frequency vibration amplitude was 4 mm, while the frequency was 3.5 Hz. Before and after the session the posturographic examination of posture stability was conducted. The control group (33 participants) also took part in 19 everyday 20 min sessions with no vibrations and only measurements conducted. The results were analyzed concerning statistics using Statistica. For the sake of the analysis the significance level was p = 0.05, the parametric t-test and the nonparametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used for two groups of independent variables. Having conducted the research and analysis, one can state that 20 min exposure to low frequency vibration results in significant changes in posture stability and 19 day long vibration training changes significantly the posture stability among the participants. The observed changes were of positive nature. The work introduces research on the possibility of using low-frequency vibration to improve human stability. The results presented concern biophysics in rehabilitation of posture stability and are not often met in specialist literature.