Aging effects on balance, gait and cognition during treadmill walking
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Date
2014-08-19
Authors
Sabapathy, Srikesavan
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Abstract
Background
Limitations in mobility resulting from balance impairments contribute substantially to falls in older adults. Aging also has a detrimental effect on cognition which influences mobility and balance. A low cost treadmill rehabilitation platform (TRP) and a custom computer game that provided single and dual task challenges while standing and walking were used to evaluate standing balance, gait variables, visual tracking and cognition game performances in active young and older adults.
Objectives
The study objectives were, 1) to determine the differences in performance-based measures of standing balance, treadmill walking, visual tracking and executive cognitive function between young and older adults and 2) to examine the effect of age and dual tasks on performance-based measures of balance, gait, visual tracking and cognition in both groups.
Methods
Thirty active young adults (Mean age: 26.7± 2 years) and thirty older adults (Mean age 61.4± 4.4 years) performed visual tracking and cognitive game tasks on three different physical and cognitive loads on the TRP. The treadmill was instrumented with a force sense array (FSA) pressure mat to record the centre of foot pressure excursions. A motion sense air mouse (Gyration Elite) mounted on a custom made helmet was used to interact with the on screen cursor of the computer screen to perform visual tracking and cognitive game tasks. Participants were also evaluated for balance using clinical tests.
Results
During single tasks, younger adults performed better than older adults in the AP direction while older adults demonstrated better balance in the ML direction. Single task walking did not demonstrate a difference between the two groups. During single task cognition, there was no difference during both cognitive games while young adults did better during the closed loop visual tracking task.
During the dual tasks, both groups demonstrated a dual task effect in balance, walking and cognitive tasks. Younger adults performed better than older adults in all the physical and cognitive load conditions.
Conclusion
The study findings provided evidence for discussion on the effects of single and dual tasking conditions in young and older adults. Understanding the effects of dual tasks has important clinical implications because older adults engage themselves in a wide variety of activities that require cognitive, mobility and balance skills simultaneously. Identifying the age at which there is a compromise on the above and providing appropriate interventions would be very useful to prevent falls.
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Keywords
Aging Effects, Dual task, gait, cognition