Article

OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between gait initiation, fall history, and
physiological fall risk in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS) during both
cognitive distracting and nondistracting conditions. DESIGN: Single time point
cross-sectional analysis. SETTING: University research laboratory. PARTICIPANTS:
Ambulatory individuals (N=20) with MS ranging in age from 28 to 76 years.
INTERVENTION: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Gait initiation time was
quantified as the time to toe-off of the first step after an auditory cue. Gait
initiation was performed with and without a concurrent cognitive challenge of
reciting alternating letters of the alphabet. Additionally, participants
underwent a test of fall risk using the Physiological Profile Assessment (PPA)
and provided a self-report of the number of falls in the previous 3 months.
RESULTS: Gait initiation times ranged from .67 to 1.12 seconds during the
single-task condition and .73 to 1.84 seconds during the cognitive challenge
condition. PPA scores ranged from -.80 to 3.87. Participants reported a median of
0.0 falls (interquartile range, 0.0-2.75) in the previous 3 months. There was a
significant correlation between PPA score and gait initiation times only in the
cognitive distraction condition (rho=.50). There was also a correlation between
cognitive distraction gait initiation times and fall history (rho=.60).
CONCLUSIONS: The observations provide preliminary evidence that gait initiation
during cognitive challenge may represent a target for fall prevention strategies
in MS.
CI - Copyright (c) 2015 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS