Steenhuis, R. (Roos) (2014) The relationship between dizziness and gait performance in community-dwelling elderly. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Introduction: Dizziness is a common problem in older adults and a challenging symptom. Disequilibrium is the form of dizziness that occurs most in the elderly. This type of dizziness seems to have the same underlying mechanisms that are important for postural control. Since elderly with balance and gait disorders need more conscious attention to maintain postural control, it is suggested that elderly with dizziness complaints also need more conscious attention to maintain postural control, especially when performing a cognitive dual task (DT) during walking. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether elderly reporting dizziness showed stronger decrease of gait performance in DT condition than in single task (ST) condition, compared to elderly without dizziness complaints. Methods: Twenty-‐four community-‐dwelling elderly, with no problems in executive functioning, participated in this study (aged 76.83 ± 5.64 years). Participants performed a 3-‐minute-‐walking-‐test twice, once with and once without performing a letter fluency task. Trunk accelerations were recorded, whereof walking speed, mean stride time, coefficient of variation (CV) of stride time and standard deviation (SD) of the relative phase between the lower limbs were determined. To measure the level of dizziness, the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) was assessed. The study-‐population was divided in a dizzy and a non-‐dizzy group. Results: Significant condition-‐effects on all the gait variables and letter fluency task were found, that is, participants walked slower in DT than in ST condition, and had higher mean stride time, higher CV of stride time and a more asymmetric gait pattern in DT condition. With respect to the cognitive task, participants named less words during de letter fluency task in DT condition. No group-‐ and interaction-‐effects on any of the variables in both the ST and DT condition were found. Only a small interaction-‐effect of group by condition was found for the CV of stride time. Conclusion: Community-‐dwelling elderly reporting dizziness had a similar decrease in gait performance while performing a cognitive DT, as elderly without dizziness complaints.
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Lamoth, dr. C.J.C. and Campen, drs. J.P.C.M. van and Groot, drs. M.H. de |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Apr 2022 08:17 |
| Last Modified: | 06 Apr 2022 08:17 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3051 |
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