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Chou CL1, Tung CL1, Chen CH1
1Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Background: During many activities of daily living, such as walking, people often may need to perform an additional cognitive or motor task at the same time (concurrent dual task performance). The risks of trips or falls may increase when performing a secondary task while walking.
Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to determine the differences of selected gait parameters of normal healthy subjects during ambulation while performing concurrent cognitive dual tasks of three different degrees of difficulty.
Methods: Twenty normal and healthy volunteer young adults without any musculoskeletal disorders of their lower extremities or low back during past 6 months were recruited for this study. The age of subjects were between 30 to 48 ages (mean = 33.25 years, SD = 0.707). All subjects walked at their selected speed and performed three concurrent cognitive dual tasks of different degrees of difficulty: (1) walking without doing any additional tasks; (2) walking while counting numbers forward from 1 to 100; (3) walking while reading a news from a smart phone. The Force plate system® will be used in this investigation to collect the selected gait parameters, such as the cadence, stride length, and the double limb support time. A one-way RM ANOVA test for repeated measures was used to analyze the selected gait parameters.
Results: Statically significant declines in cadence were found when subjects walked while reading a news from a smart phone compared with walking without doing any additional tasks (t = -4.295, p = 0.003) or walking while counting forward (t = -3.370, p = 0.002). A statically significant decrease in stride length was found when subjects walked while reading a news from a smart phone, compared with walking without doing any additional tasks (t = -6.427, p = 0.001) or walking while counting forward (t = -6.826, p 0.001).
Conclusion(s): The results of this experiment showed subjects experienced marked deterioration in their gait pattern when they were required to perform a secondary cognitive dual task at the same time as walking. Compared with walking without any additional tasks and walking while counting forward, subjects had statistically significant decline in cadence and stride length when walking while walking while reading a news from a smart phone at the same time.
The results of this investigation support the capacity-sharing model of attentional resources sharing. Subjects had statistically significant deteriorations in cadence and stride length when they walked while reading a news from a smart phone at the same time. The capacity of attentional demands shared more attentional resources to read a news from a smart phone from walking, compared with count forward and without any additional tasks.
Implications: It can also be used for gait training while adding another cognitive work, and using different degrees of difficulty to increase the body´s ability to control and reduce the risk of falling.
Keywords: cognitive dual tasks, gait parameter, gait training
Funding acknowledgements: This study is an in-hospital guiding research project for the 104th year of the Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital.
Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to determine the differences of selected gait parameters of normal healthy subjects during ambulation while performing concurrent cognitive dual tasks of three different degrees of difficulty.
Methods: Twenty normal and healthy volunteer young adults without any musculoskeletal disorders of their lower extremities or low back during past 6 months were recruited for this study. The age of subjects were between 30 to 48 ages (mean = 33.25 years, SD = 0.707). All subjects walked at their selected speed and performed three concurrent cognitive dual tasks of different degrees of difficulty: (1) walking without doing any additional tasks; (2) walking while counting numbers forward from 1 to 100; (3) walking while reading a news from a smart phone. The Force plate system® will be used in this investigation to collect the selected gait parameters, such as the cadence, stride length, and the double limb support time. A one-way RM ANOVA test for repeated measures was used to analyze the selected gait parameters.
Results: Statically significant declines in cadence were found when subjects walked while reading a news from a smart phone compared with walking without doing any additional tasks (t = -4.295, p = 0.003) or walking while counting forward (t = -3.370, p = 0.002). A statically significant decrease in stride length was found when subjects walked while reading a news from a smart phone, compared with walking without doing any additional tasks (t = -6.427, p = 0.001) or walking while counting forward (t = -6.826, p 0.001).
Conclusion(s): The results of this experiment showed subjects experienced marked deterioration in their gait pattern when they were required to perform a secondary cognitive dual task at the same time as walking. Compared with walking without any additional tasks and walking while counting forward, subjects had statistically significant decline in cadence and stride length when walking while walking while reading a news from a smart phone at the same time.
The results of this investigation support the capacity-sharing model of attentional resources sharing. Subjects had statistically significant deteriorations in cadence and stride length when they walked while reading a news from a smart phone at the same time. The capacity of attentional demands shared more attentional resources to read a news from a smart phone from walking, compared with count forward and without any additional tasks.
Implications: It can also be used for gait training while adding another cognitive work, and using different degrees of difficulty to increase the body´s ability to control and reduce the risk of falling.
Keywords: cognitive dual tasks, gait parameter, gait training
Funding acknowledgements: This study is an in-hospital guiding research project for the 104th year of the Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital.
Topic: Human movement analysis; Neurology; Mental health
Ethics approval required: Yes
Institution: Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital
Ethics committee: Institutional Review Board
Ethics number: KMUH104-M424
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
