Relationship between Balance and Attentional Function in Deaf and Healthy People

Deafness, in spite of the damage to the relationship, is also associated with other physical disorders such as imbalance and cognitive impairment. The study of balance and cognitive function in deaf has been considered by researchers in a few studies, but the relationship between these two functions has been less relevant. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between attentional function and balance performance in deaf people.

39 deaf students from exceptional schools in Hamadan and 40 healthy students participated in this study. The Information about attentional performance of the subjects was evaluated by Flanker, continuous performance and Stroop softwares. Also, the balance was assessed using the balance subset of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-II, a standardized test of static and dynamic balance. Data were analyzed using Maan-Withney U, Wilcoxon and Spearman test statistical methods. Results were analyzed by SPSS software with p < 0.05.

The results showed that deaf people have significantly lower balance and cognitive function than healthy subjects. The results of correlation test showed that the highest correlation was observed in Flanker test with heel-toe walking test (P <0.05).

Depending on the results presented in this study, deaf people have a greater dependence on visual information. It may also be possible to improve motor function by increasing the amount of attention.