چكيده لاتين :
deafness but may also lead to balance problems. This is the reason why the hearing-impaired and deaf people
are struggling with balance problems. Given the ever-increasing development of the adaptive sports, specific to
the deaf, who are considered as part of the active individuals in the community, detailed studies are required
on the balance of the deaf, which is an important part of routine activities and sports performances. Therefore,
this study generally aims to investigate the balance skills of the deaf in comparison to their normal counterparts.
Materials & Methods In this study, a comprehensive review on ‘the balance of the deaf’ has been carried out by
searching English databases, such as Science Direct, PubMed, Cochrane review, TRIP, PEDro, EMBASE, CINAHL,
and Google Scholar, for the following keywords: “Deaf”, “Postural control in Deaf Hearing Loss”, “Deafness”,
“Balance” and “Balance in Deaf”. In addition, the Persian databases, such as Magiran, Irandoc, IranMedex,
MedLib, Sid were searched for the following Persian equivalent keywords: Balance in the deaf, postural control
in the deaf, deaf, congenital deafness and balance, from 1932 to June 2018. Moreover, manual searching and
full reviewing of resources of the articles were carried out to find the respective articles. Articles were narrowed
down and sorted out by the titles such as the English language, Persian language, Human, original article, and
review article. After collecting the search results, the titles and abstracts of the articles were studied. If the articles
met the inclusion and exclusion criteria, their results would be employed in the review study; otherwise,
they would be excluded.
Results Based on the criteria and objectives of the research, 51 articles were selected. Forty-eight papers were
provided in full text and the rest were summarized. In general, the balance of the deaf was investigated in three
different respects of 1) a comparison of the balance of the deaf with that of the normal counterparts, 2) the
effect of age on the balance of the deaf, and 3) the effect of the training protocols on the balance of the deaf.
Conclusion The deaf people appear to struggle with balance problems when the vestibular system information
is the only sensory source available; however, when the information of the proprioception and vision systems
is available, there can be no balance problem as compared to normal counterparts. Several studies have also
shown that the deaf, as they age, make up for the balance impairment resulting from vestibular impairments
with proprioception and vision systems; it also appears that their proprioception and vision systems are better
than or equal to those of their normal counterparts. However, it has not been determined yet that by increasing
age in the deaf people, which proprioception system dominates and contributes to maintaining the balance of
the deaf better than other systems. Furthermore, a review of studies has shown that all training programs and
rehabilitation protocols have positive effects on the balance of the deaf. However, it has not been determined
yet which training programs have a long and lasting effect on the balance of the deaf, and few studies have been
carried out in this area. In addition, the same balance tests are used in all community groups, which may be
inappropriate for measuring the balance in deaf people, since it is still not clear which motion strategies have
been employed by the deaf to maintain balance. Therefore, to reach the final conclusion about the balance of
the deaf people, further studies should be conducted on the proper tests to measure the balance of the deaf so
that accurate and high-quality reports on their balance can be obtained.
