Werkema, S. (2016) Differential effects of two attention-demanding tasks on gait performance in young and older adults. thesis, Human Movement Sciences.
Full text available on request.Abstract
Background: Dual-tasking effects have been revealed in a numerous of studies in both young and older adults. However, it remains unclear what factors are responsible for this effect and how this effect differs between both age groups. The aim of this study is therefore to assess aging effects in gait performance during dual-tasking in terms of step-related and trunk-related measures. Furthermore, the goal was to investigate the differential effects of two different attention-demanding tasks on gait performance between the two age groups. Methods: Fourteen young adults (mean age 21.43±2.07 years) and fifteen cognitive intact older adults (mean age 69.27±5.06 years) participated in this study. The design consisted of three conditions, namely walking without an additional task and walking while performing a counting backwards and an Auditory Stroop test. Results: Older subjects exhibited a less variable and irregular trunk acceleration pattern than the younger subjects. Furthermore, the older age group experienced a significantly (<0.05) higher increase in stride-to-stride variability as a result of dual-tasking. When comparing the two attention-demanding tasks, the effect of the counting backwards task was more pronounced than the effect of the Auditory Stroop task, indicated by higher decrease in gait speed and a higher increase in mean stride time in the older age group as a result of this dual-task. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that the effect of dual-tasking seems to depend on the type of cognitive task . The older age group altered their gait more during the counting backwards task than the younger group by decreasing mean stride time and gait speed, which may reflect a higher attentional loading of this task. Furthermore, stride-to-stride variability appears to be a more sensitive measure in detecting different effects of age on dual-tasking. At last, our results showed that trunk related parameters are significantly different across all conditions between both age groups, where the older subjects adopted a less variable and more regular gait pattern compared to the younger age group.
| Item Type: | Thesis (UNSPECIFIED) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Lamoth, dr. C.J.C. |
| Faculty: | Medical Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 04 May 2022 08:28 |
| Last Modified: | 04 May 2022 08:28 |
| URI: | https://umcg.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3210 |
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