我国是世界上老年人口最多的国家，2015年我国65岁及以上老年人口已达1.44亿，社会老龄化问题相伴而生且日益加深。跌倒是威胁老年人生命健康的重要因素之一，不仅对老年人身心健康有巨大的伤害，沉重的医疗费用也加重了家庭和社会的负担。本研究从老年人跌倒的两个重要因素平衡和认知之间的关系出发，分析了认知对平衡能力的影响，研究结果为增强老年人的身体活动能力进而提高其抗跌倒能力，提高老年人生活品质具有重要的理论和实践意义。本研究以34名老年人（67.9±4.8岁）和27名青年人（20.0±1.3岁）为实验对象，通过蒙特利尔认知评估量表（Montreal Cognitive Assessment，MoCA）对身体健康的老年人进行认知能力分组，再测试普通大学生、高认知水平老年人和低认知老年人三组之间平衡能力、单任务面孔识别能力、双任务面孔识别能力，比较不同认知水平老年人和大学生的差异，分析认知能力和平衡能力的相关性。研究发现：老年人的平衡能力显著低于大学生（p＜0.05）；单任务情况下大学生悲伤面孔识别正确率显著高于两组老年人（p＜0.05），双任务条件下大学生快乐面孔识别正确率显著高于两组老年人（p＜0.05）。所有参与者在单任务条件下的悲伤面孔识别正确率均不同程度的高于双任务条件下（p＜0.05）。大学生组和高认知老年人组的悲伤面孔识别反应时显著低于低认知老年人组（p＜0.05）；而低认知组老年人和高认知组老年人在单任务和双任务情况下正确识别悲伤情绪和快乐情绪的反应时均没有显著差异（p＜0.05）。MoCA得分和平衡能力测试成绩在不同情绪识别测试中的反应时、正确识别反应时存在不同程度的相关性（p＜0.05,0.2＜r≤0.5）。平衡能力成绩与双任务面孔识别实验的反应时和正确识别时反应时存在不同程度的相关性（p＜0.05，0.2＜r≤0.5）。研究结论：年龄是导致老年人平衡能力下降的重要因素之一，而认知能力衰退对平衡能力下降的影响相对较小；不同认知水平的老年人在进行判断和操作时会选择不同的认知策略。随着难度的提高，认知资源较少的老年人会选择牺牲正确率减少所花时间以完成任务，而认知资源较丰富的人会选择保证正确率。快速的面孔识别判断是一种简单有效评价老年人认知水平能力的指标；老年人平衡能力与双任务面孔识别测试的反应时存在显著相关。
China has the most elderly people in the world. In 2015, the population aged 65 and over in China has reached to 144 million. The problem of social aging is becoming serious. Fall is one of the important factors that threaten the health of the elderly. It is not only has great harm to the physical and mental health, but also increases the burden of family and society. The study analysis the relationship between the cognition and balance. The results of the study have important theoretical and practical significance for the prevention of falls and improvement of the quality of life.In this study, 34 elderly people (67.9±4.8 years) and 27 young adults (20.0±1.3 years) were selected as the subjects, The study used Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to identify the cognitive ability of healthy elderly people, then test the balance ability and emotion recognition ability among the three groups :College Students Group(CSG), High Cognitive Level Group (HCLG), Low Cognitive Level Group(LCLG), finally test the correlation among MoCA,balance ability and face recognition.Results: the balance ability of the elderly was significantly lower than that of the CSG(p<0.05). For CSG, the correct rate of recognition of sad faces in single task was significantly higher than that in LCLG and in HCLG(p<0.05). For CSG, the correct rate of recognition of happy faces was significantly higher than that in the other two groups(p<0.05). The correct rate of recognition of sad faces in the three groups was higher when it was under the single task than that under the dual task(p<0.05). The response time of LCLG’s sad faces recognition was significantly higher than that of CSG and HCLG (p<0.05). however,there was no significant difference between LCLG and HCLG in the correct recognition of the sad and happy emotions in both single task and dual task(p＞0.05). There are different degrees of correlation between the response time and the correct recognition of the MoCA score and the Y balance test scores in different emotion recognition tests （p＜0.05,0.2＜r≤0.5）. There was a correlation between the performance of balance ability and the response time of the dual task face recognition experiment（p＜0.05,0.2＜r≤0.5）.Aging is one of the important factors leading to the decline of the balance of the elderly, and the decline of cognitive ability has a relatively small impact on the decline of the balance ability. The elderly with different cognitive abilities will choose different cognitive strategies when they make the decisions. With the increase of difficulty, the elderly with less cognitive resources will choose to sacrifice the correct rate to reduce the time to complete the task. However the elderly with more cognitive resources will choose to ensure the high accuracy. Fast face recognition is a simple and effective index to evaluate the cognitive ability. There is a significant correlation between the balance ability and the response time of dual task face recognition test.
