Head Movements as Balance perturbations: characterising Stability control, Sensory function, and Fall mechanisms in Aging

The Balancar study is a cross-sectional, monocentric study aimed at characterising gait and stability reactions to head movements alongside sensory function in a healthy older adult sample with and without recent fall history. This study was undertaken within the doctoral research of Eugénie Lambrecht (study contact person) at Research group MOVANT, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences and Physiotherapy at the University of Antwerp. The Balancar study protocol was pre-registered on Clinicaltrials.gov (ID NCT06345625) and the protocol can there be consulted. Ethical approval was obtained from the local ethical committe of the University of Antwerp/Antwerp University Hospital on the 4th of March (BUN-B3002024000052). Prior to the Balancar study, the protocol was validated in a healthy young adult population and published in 2025 (DOI: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2025.08.001). Included datasets: Demographics_Balancar.xlsx: Includes all demographic data of the study sample (age, gender, frailty, cognition etc.). HeadKinematics_Balancar.xlsx: Includes head kinematics of each 7-meter overground walk with augmented-reality cued head movements. Margin of Stability and Spatiotemporal parameters_Balancar.xlsx: Includes the anteroposterior and mediolateral margin of stability and spatiotemporal parameters (step length, step width, step time, and gait speed) of each 7-meter overground walk before and during the augmented-reality cued head movements. Sensory function_Balancar.xlsx: Includes all sensory functions of the study sample: cervical proprioception (joint position error on the head repositioning test), vestibulo-ocular reflex gain (video head impulse test), visual acuity (functional head impulse/dynamic visual acuity test). In each dataset (.xlsx), the final tab constitutes a 'readme' tab explaining each variable (column) in the dataset, including a legend of used abbreviations and units. Included Matlab code: Analyse_HeadKinematics_STP_COM_BALANCAR: main code for analysis and calculation of head kinematics, spatiotemporal parameters and margin of stability. Matlab functions necessary to run Analyse_HeadKinematics_STP_COM_BALANCAR code: CalculateMoS_Hak correctwd Euler1 ExtrapCOM_Sutpitz gaitevents_toe gaitevents2 GetMarkerData readC3Dsjoerd, adapted from prof. dr. Sjoerd Bruijn (author) with permission for open access sharing Sampleto100v2 StepTimePar README_Analyse_HeadKinematics_STP_COM: Readme file about the code Uitkomstparameters_Overzicht_STP_COM_ORACULAR_BALANCAR: overview of outcome parameters The author of the matlab code is prof. dr. Ann Hallemans.