The Role of age, balance ability, additional task characteristics, and ability to allocate attention to gait

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the ability to allocate attention during gait as a function of age, balance ability, and secondary task characteristics. Forty-five healthy young adults, healthy older adults, and older adults with balance impairment who have no known musculoskeletal, neurological, and cardiopulmonary problems that might affected gait performance, were recruited into the study. Each participant was asked to walk between two strips of tape for 8 meters on the electronic walkway with their self-selected walking speed under four walking conditions: 1) walking without any secondary tasks; 2) walking while performing the “tray carrying” task; 3) walking while performing the “counting backward by 1” task; and 4) walking while performing the “counting backward by 3s” task. Three different instructions were given for all dual-task conditions: 1) focus on both tasks equally; 2) focus on the narrow walking task; and 3) focus on the secondary task. A three-way mixed effect repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the 3 groups (healthy young adults, healthy older adults, older adults with balance impairment) 3 task characteristics (manual, cognitive-easy, cognitive-difficult) 3 prioritizations (focus on both tasks equally, focus on gait task, focus on secondary task) interaction effect. The results showed that only healthy young adults were able to allocate attention between the gait and cognitive tasks, suggesting that the ability to shift attention deteriorated along with advancing age and a decline in balance ability. Even among healthy young adults, the ability to prioritize the task is strongly influenced by the secondary task characteristics. Thus, to fully understand the ability to allocate attention, all factors including age, balance ability, and secondary task characteristics, should always be taken into consideration. Training resource allocation should be included as a part of fall prevention programs for the older individual