Article

PURPOSE: To investigate whether synchronising over-ground walking to rhythmic
auditory cues improves temporal and spatial gait measures in adults with
neurological clinical conditions other than Parkinson's disease. METHOD:
A search was performed in June 2011 using the computerised databases AGELINE, AMED, AMI,
CINAHL, Current Contents, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and PUBMED, and extended
using hand-searching of relevant journals and article reference lists.
Methodological quality was independently assessed by two reviewers. A best
evidence synthesis was applied to rate levels of evidence. RESULTS: Fourteen
studies, four of which were randomized controlled trials (RCTs), met the
inclusion criteria. Patient groups included those with stroke (six studies);
Huntington's disease and spinal cord injury (two studies each); traumatic brain
injury, dementia, multiple sclerosis and normal pressure hydrocephalus (one study
each). The best evidence synthesis found moderate evidence of improved velocity
and stride length of people with stroke following gait training with rhythmic
music. Insufficient evidence was found for other included neurological disorders
due to low study numbers and poor methodological quality of some studies.
CONCLUSION: Synchronising walking to rhythmic auditory cues can result in
short-term improvement in gait measures of people with stroke. Further high
quality studies are needed before recommendations for clinical practice can be
made.

Langue : ANGLAIS