Functional Balance in Diabetic Neuropathy

Proprioceptive loss in diabetic peripheral neuropathy patients (DPN) has been known to cause postural imbalance, which may affect the quality of functions and activities of daily living of these patients. The aim of this study was to compare functional balance in diabetic neuropathic patients and normal subjects. Fifteen DPN patients whom neuropathy was diagnosed by Diabetic Neuropathy Examination (DNE) and 15 healthy gender-, age- and BMI-matched, subjects were evaluated using the Berg Balance Scale (BBS). In addition to the overall functional balance, five groups of BBS tests based on the probable effects of proprioceptive loss on various functions were taken into more consideration. These test groups were: The ability to control weight shifting (CWS), ability to transfer (T), and ability to control balance under different base of support (BOS) and visual (V) conditions. Comparison of the two groups showed significant decreases in BBS, CWS, T, BOS, and V scores the DPN patients, compared to healthy controls (P<0.05). There were significant negative (sig. level: 0.001) good to strong correlations between DNE score and BBS, CWS, T, BOS, and V, Scores (Pearson’s correlation coefficient: -0.88, -0.91, -0.87, -0.76, and -0.70, respectively) in patients. To control their balance, DPN patients rely on visual information, and the current findings demonstrate that DPN results in a functional imbalance, exposing these patients to the danger of falling during of their daily living activities, the condition becoming more acute as severity of neuropathy aggravates.