Centre of pressure changes during stance but not during gait in young women after alcohol intoxication

Marta Gimunová; Michal Bozděch; Jan Novák

doi:10.7717/peerj.16511

Centre of pressure changes during stance but not during gait in young women after alcohol intoxication

PeerJ. 2023 Nov 29:11:e16511. doi: 10.7717/peerj.16511. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Marta Gimunová¹, Michal Bozděch², Jan Novák²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Activities and Health Sciences, Faculty of Sports Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
² Department of Physical Education and Social Sciences, Faculty of Sports Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

Abstract

Background: Women are underrepresented in research focused on alcohol (e.g., Brighton, Moxham & Traynor, 2016; DOI 10.1097/JAN.0000000000000136) despite the changing patterns of alcohol consumption, which has been increasing in women in recent decades. The purpose of this study was to analyse the relationship between habitual alcohol consumption and centre of pressure (CoP) parameters during stance and gait while intoxicated by alcohol.

Methods: Thirty women (24.39 ± 2.93 years) participated in this study. All participants were asked to answer the AUDIT questionnaire. Stance and gait analysis were repeated under two conditions on a Zebris platform (FDM GmbH; Munich, Germany): when the participants were sober (0.00% breath alcohol concentration, BrAC) and when they were in an intoxicated state (0.11% BrAC). Participants were divided by their AUDIT score into a low-risk alcohol consumption group (n = 15; AUDIT score: 3 to 6) and a hazardous alcohol consumption group (n = 15; AUDIT score: 7 to 13).

Results: No statistical difference was observed in stance and gait parameters when comparing the low-risk and hazardous groups under 0.00% BrAC and 0.11% BrAC conditions. A statistically significant difference was observed when comparing 0.00% BrAC and 0.11% BrAC conditions within each group. This significant difference was found in CoP path length and CoP average velocity during quiet stance. However, no statistically significant differences were observed in CoP parameters during gait. An alcohol intoxication of 0.11% BrAC was not sufficient to cause statistically significant impairments in butterfly parameters of gait.

Keywords: Alcohol intoxication; AUDIT score; Female; Gait; Stance.

MeSH terms

Alcohol Drinking / adverse effects
Alcoholic Intoxication*
Breath Tests
Ethanol / analysis
Female
Gait
Humans

Substances

Ethanol

Grants and funding

This research was written at Masaryk University as part of the project number MUNI/A/1639/2020 with the support of the Specific University Research Grant provided by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.