The effect of walking task contexts on dual-task walking performance among older adults
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Abstract
Background: Although the efficacy of dual-task training on balance and gait performance under dual-task conditions has been clearly demonstrated, the generalization of the dual-task training skill remains unclear. The inconsistent results from previous studies might be due to the differences in the tasks contexts chosen for the trained and untrained conditions.
Objectives: To determine the effect of walking task contexts on dual-task walking performance in older adults.
Methods: Sixty older adults were asked to walk for 6 meters under four different walking conditions: 1) usual walking; 2) crossing one obstacle; 3) crossing three obstacles; and 4) narrow walking. Each walking task was performed under single-task (i.e. walking without any cognitive tasks) and dual-task (i.e. walking while concurrently performing a verbal fluency task or a counting backward by 3s task) conditions. The location of the whole body center of mass (CoM) and the base of support (BoS) were calculated using three-dimensional motion analysis with 32 reflective markers.
Results: Dual-task gait performance, as reflected by the XcoM-BoS displacement, was similar between the crossing one and crossing three obstacles tasks. However, the displacement during narrow walking was significantly smaller than the crossing obstacle tasks
Conclusion: Walking task contexts significantly affect dual-task walking performance in older adults. Thus, the influence of walking task context should be considered when examining dual-task related gait changes.
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References
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