Stability of balance performance from childhood to midlife

Background: Balance ability underlies most physical movement across life, with particular importance for older adults. No study has investigated if balance ability is established in childhood nor if associations are independent of adult factors. We investigated associations between balance performance in early (age 10) and midlife (age 46), and whether associations were independent of known contributors to adult balance. Methods: Up to 6024 individuals from the 1970 British Cohort Study were included. At age 10, static (one-legged stand) and dynamic (backwards toe-to-heel walk) balance were categorized as poor, medium or high. Eyes open and closed one-legged balance performance (max:30seconds), was assessed at age 46 with five categories. Results: Poor static balance at age 10 was strongly associated with worse balance ability at age 46. Relative to the highest balance group at age 46 (i.e. eyes open and closed for 30s), those with poor static balance had a 7.07 (4.92,10.16) greater risk of being in the poorest balance group (i.e. eyes open