Citation

da Silva Costa AA, Rossi PA, Mauerberg-deCastro E, Moraes R. Neurosci. Lett. 2015; 609: 1-6.

Affiliation

School of Physical Education and Sport of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. Electronic address: renatomoraes@usp.br.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.neulet.2015.10.004

PMID

26455960

Abstract

This study assessed whether the use of an "anchor system" benefited older adults who performed a tandem walking task. Additionally, we tested the effects of practice with the anchor system during walking on trunk stability, in the frontal plane, of older adults. Forty-four older adults were randomly assigned to three groups: control group, 0g anchor group, and 125g anchor group. Individuals in each group performed a tandem walking task on the GaitRite system with an accelerometer placed on the cervical region. The participants in the 125g anchor group held, in each hand, a flexible cable with a light mass attached at the end of the cable, which rested on the ground. The individuals kept the mass in contact with the ground and pulled on the cable just enough to keep it taught. The 0g anchor group held an anchor tool without any mass attached to the end portion. The results of this study demonstrated that the use of the anchor system contributed to the reduction of trunk acceleration in the frontal plane. However, this effect did not persist after removal of the anchors, which suggests that the amount of practice with this tool was insufficient to generate any lasting effect, or that the task was not sufficiently challenging, or both.

Language: en