@article{ref1,
title="A comparison of two walking while talking paradigms in aging",
journal="Gait and posture",
year="2014",
author="Li, Clara and Verghese, Joe and Holtzer, Roee",
volume="40",
number="3",
pages="415-419",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Our study aimed to [1] compare dual-task costs in gait and cognitive performance during two dual-task paradigms: walking while reciting alternate letters of the alphabet (WWR) and walking while counting backward by sevens (WWC); [2] examine the relationship between the gait and cognitive interference tasks when performed concurrently. SCOPE: Gait and cognitive performance were tested in 217 non-demented older adults (mean age 76±8.8 years; 56.2% female) under single and dual-task conditions. Velocity (cm/s) was obtained using an instrumented walkway. Cognitive performance was assessed using accuracy ratio: [correct responses]/[total responses]. Linear mixed effects models revealed significant dual-task costs, with slower velocity (p<.01) and decreased accuracy ratio (p<.01) in WWR and WWC compared to their respective single task conditions. Greater dual-task costs in velocity (p<.01) were observed in WWC compared to WWR. Pearson correlations revealed significant and positive relationships between gait and cognitive performance in WWR and WWC (p<.01); increased accuracy ratio was associated with faster velocity. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggested that dual-task costs in gait increase as the complexity of the cognitive task increases. Furthermore, the positive association between the gait and cognitive tasks suggest that dual-task performance was not influenced by task prioritization strategies in this sample.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0966-6362",
doi="10.1016/j.gaitpost.2014.05.062",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2014.05.062"
}