OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of a second task on balance and gait maneuvers used in everyday life. Our hypothesis was that those who were more distracted by a familiar manual task performed concurrently with functional maneuvers were more frail and more prone to falls. DESIGN: A cross-sectional design with prospective follow-up for falls. SETTING: Sheltered accommodation in Umeå, Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-two residents (30 women, 12 men; mean age +/- SD = 79.7 +/- 6.1 years), ambulant with or without a walking aid, able to follow simple instructions and able to carry a tumbler. MEASUREMENTS: Timed Up & Go (TUG), i.e., the time taken to rise from an armchair, walk 3 meters, turn round, and sit down again. TUG was repeated with an added manual task (TUGmanual), which was to carry a glass of water while walking. The Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, Barthel Index, Functional Reach, Mini-Mental State Examination, and Line Bisection test were used to assess for frailty. The subjects were followed-up prospectively regarding falls indoors for a period of 6-months. RESULTS: Subjects with a time difference (diffTUG) between TUGmanual and TUG of > or = 4.5 seconds were considered to be distracted by the second task. Ten subjects had a difference in time of > or = 4.5 seconds. These subjects were more frail, and seven of them fell indoors during the follow-up period (odds ratio 4.7, 95%Confidence Interval (CI) 1.5-14.2). CONCLUSION: The time difference between the TUGmanual and the TUG appears to be a valid marker of frailty and a useful tool for identifying older persons prone to falling.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of a second task on balance and gait maneuvers used in everyday life. Our hypothesis was that those who were more distracted by a familiar manual task performed concurrently with functional maneuvers were more frail and more prone to falls. DESIGN: A cross-sectional design with prospective follow-up for falls. SETTING: Sheltered accommodation in Umeå, Sweden. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-two residents (30 women, 12 men; mean age +/- SD = 79.7 +/- 6.1 years), ambulant with or without a walking aid, able to follow simple instructions and able to carry a tumbler. MEASUREMENTS: Timed Up & Go (TUG), i.e., the time taken to rise from an armchair, walk 3 meters, turn round, and sit down again. TUG was repeated with an added manual task (TUGmanual), which was to carry a glass of water while walking. The Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, Barthel Index, Functional Reach, Mini-Mental State Examination, and Line Bisection test were used to assess for frailty. The subjects were followed-up prospectively regarding falls indoors for a period of 6-months. RESULTS: Subjects with a time difference (diffTUG) between TUGmanual and TUG of > or = 4.5 seconds were considered to be distracted by the second task. Ten subjects had a difference in time of > or = 4.5 seconds. These subjects were more frail, and seven of them fell indoors during the follow-up period (odds ratio 4.7, 95%Confidence Interval (CI) 1.5-14.2). CONCLUSION: The time difference between the TUGmanual and the TUG appears to be a valid marker of frailty and a useful tool for identifying older persons prone to falling.
Authors: M Jamour; C Becker; S Bachmann; E D de Bruin; C Grüneberg; J Heckmann; C Marburger; S E Nicolai; M Schwenk; U Lindemann Journal: Z Gerontol Geriatr Date: 2011-12 Impact factor: 1.281
Authors: David J Clark; Sudeshna A Chatterjee; Theresa E McGuirk; Eric C Porges; Emily J Fox; Chitralakshmi K Balasubramanian Journal: Gait Posture Date: 2017-12-01 Impact factor: 2.840
Authors: Barbara L Fischer; William T Hoyt; Lawrence Maucieri; Amy J Kind; Gail Gunter-Hunt; Teresa Chervenka Swader; Ronald E Gangnon; Carey E Gleason Journal: J Rehabil Res Dev Date: 2014