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K. Takimoto1, H. Takebayashi2, K. Miyamoto2
1Naragakuen University, Department of Rehabilitation, Faculty of Health Sciences, Nara, Japan, 2Tosa Rehabilitation College, Department of Physical Therapy, Kochi City, Japan
Background: Recently, many reports have presented efforts to detect people at a risk of falling by evaluating their ability to walk under multiple-task conditions. On the other hand, Perrochon et al. (2013) developed a novel secondary task using what they called a Walking Stroop Carpet (WSC), and they reported that mild cognitive impairment can be detected early, using this evaluation of gait ability. The WSC is a test that mimics the Stroop test that is normally done at a table by having a walker selectively step on targets of a specified text or color. We hypothesized that the WSC is effective for detecting people at a cognitive impairment and risk of falling, and the present study was carried out to test this hypothesis.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the usefulness of a Walking Stroop Carpet (WSC) in evaluating cognitive impairment and fall risk among community-dwelling elderly.
Methods: The participants were 113 community-dwelling elderly people. In all the participants, WSC tasks were performed in addition to the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)-Japanese, and interviews to clarify the occurrence of falls over the past 1 year. Moreover, 10-m walking test (at conformable and maximum walking speeds) as a general walking test, and the Timed Up and Go test. Whereas the Stroop Test is originally performed on the desk, we made a 5–meter carpet which has the rows of tags with a name of colors and placed it on the walking path. Under the word condition, the subjects walk through the carpet stepping on the tags with the word “green”. Under the color condition, the subjects walk as the same way on the tags with the word colored “red”. In each condition, required time was measured.
Results: As a result of WSC tasks, a logistic regression analysis with the presence or absence of decreased cognitive function as the objective variable showed the word condition alone as a significant explanatory variable (odds ratio; 1.30, 95%CI; 1.01-1.69, p < 0.05). On the other hand, a logistic regression analysis with the presence or absence of fall as the objective variable showed the color condition alone as a significant explanatory variable (odds ratio; 1.62, 95%CI; 1.11-2.36, p<0.05).
Conclusion(s): We concluded that the WSC test can be used for the assessments of cognitive decline and fall risks by selecting the test conditions.
Implications: In a very elderly society, maintaining the ability to walk is important for extending healthy longevity. Thus, an evaluation method that more sensitively measures the risk of falling and cognitive impairment in elderly people living in communities is needed. In addition, the WSC may also be applicable in fall and cognitive impairment prevention training.
Funding, acknowledgements: Our study did not need a fund.
Keywords: Walking Stroop Carpet, fall, cognitive impairment
Topic: Older people
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: Tosa Rehabilitation College
Committee: The Ethics Committee of Tosa Rehabilitation College
Ethics number: 101502
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
