II-P053
INFLUENCE OF DUAL-TASK CHALLENGES ON GAIT
PERFORMANCE OF OLDER ADULTS WITH COGNITIVE
IMPAIRMENT
Yu-Hsiu Chu1, Meng-Tien Wu2,3, Ko Chiao2, I-Cheng Lin4, Ming-Jang Chiu5, Pei-Fang Tang2*
1Department of Physical Therapy and Graduate Institute of Rehabilitation Science, China Medical
University, Taichung, Taiwan, ROC
2School and Graduate Institute of Physical Therapy, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC 3Rehabilitation Center, Cardinal Tien Hospital Yunghe Branch, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
4Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung,
Taiwan, ROC
5Department of Neurology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
ABSTRACT
Background and Purpose: Older adults with cognitive impairment often present gait
dysfunction. We aimed to comprehensively investigate the influence of dual-task challenges on gait performance in these adults.
Materials/Methods: Eleven subjects with mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (76.2 ± 6.4
yrs), 10 subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (72.3 ± 6.9 yrs), and 9 healthy older subjects (71.2 ± 5.6 yr) walked at their comfortable pace on the GaitMatII device for 6 trials each under single- and dual-task (performing serial 7 subtraction while walking) conditions. Comprehensive spatio-temporal gait parameters, including gait velocity, stride length, support base, cadence, double support time, and their stride-to-stride variability were calculated. A two-way (Group x Task) repeated measures ANCOVA, with age as the covariate, was used to examine Group and Task effects on the gait parameters.
Results: The three groups were similar in age, height, and physical activity level (p>
0.05). The AD group showed the poorest Mini-Mental State Examination score (21.0), followed by the MCI (25.7), and then by the healthy group (28.4) (p< 0.001). From the single- to dual-task conditions, all three groups significantly decreased the stride length, but the MCI and AD groups additionally decreased gait velocity and cadence, and increased the double support time (p< 0.025).
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: Concurrent execution of a secondary cognitive
task challenges walking performance of older adults with cognitive impairment to a greater extent than that of healthy older adults. Safety precaution is needed for older adults with cognitive impairment when walking in cognitive-demanding environments.
