TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial-Temporal Parameters of Gait Associated With Alzheimer Disease
T2 - A Longitudinal Analysis
AU - Oh, Chorong
AU - Morris, Richard J.
AU - LaPointe, Leonard L.
AU - Stierwalt, Julie A.G.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Florida State University through the Dissertation Research Grant.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the biggest social and medical concerns in the aging world. A dual task of walking and talking is a particularly practical means to assess AD considering the cognitive and behavioral changes that characterize the disease. The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of the dual task of walking and talking on people with early stage AD under differing cognitive load levels of talking. Participants (9 women and 5 men, mean age (years) = 78.03, standard deviation [SD] = 12.06) with mild or moderate AD (mean Dementia Rating Scale 2 score = 88.14, SD = 7.07) completed 12 monthly walking sessions under no, low, or high cognitive load. They also completed the low and high cognitive load tasks while seated. Linear mixed-effects modeling revealed that values in the Functional Ambulation Profile, stride length, and velocity decreased as tasks became more complex and double support time increased at the same rate. The walking and seated conditions comparison indicated that participants’ performance on both low and high cognitive tasks was poor when they were walking rather than seated. The results show that people with early stage AD exhibited gait impairments that increased over time and when completing tasks with greater cognitive load.
AB - Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the biggest social and medical concerns in the aging world. A dual task of walking and talking is a particularly practical means to assess AD considering the cognitive and behavioral changes that characterize the disease. The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of the dual task of walking and talking on people with early stage AD under differing cognitive load levels of talking. Participants (9 women and 5 men, mean age (years) = 78.03, standard deviation [SD] = 12.06) with mild or moderate AD (mean Dementia Rating Scale 2 score = 88.14, SD = 7.07) completed 12 monthly walking sessions under no, low, or high cognitive load. They also completed the low and high cognitive load tasks while seated. Linear mixed-effects modeling revealed that values in the Functional Ambulation Profile, stride length, and velocity decreased as tasks became more complex and double support time increased at the same rate. The walking and seated conditions comparison indicated that participants’ performance on both low and high cognitive tasks was poor when they were walking rather than seated. The results show that people with early stage AD exhibited gait impairments that increased over time and when completing tasks with greater cognitive load.
KW - Alzheimer disease
KW - cognition
KW - dementia
KW - gait
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U2 - 10.1177/0891988720901779
DO - 10.1177/0891988720901779
M3 - Article
C2 - 32129132
AN - SCOPUS:85081580831
SN - 0891-9887
VL - 34
SP - 46
EP - 59
JO - Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology
JF - Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology
IS - 1
ER -