Widener University, Institute for Physical Therapy Education, Chester, PA 19013, United States.
Gait Posture. 2013 Jun;38(2):198-202. doi: 10.1016/j.gaitpost.2012.11.009. Epub 2012 Dec 7.
Community ambulation requires the capacity to alter gait in response to obstacles within the path of travel that appear at a known location. Acquiring information from the environment to safely negotiate a curb may increase the cognitive demands of walking. The purpose of this study was to examine the attentional demands of walking toward and stepping up onto a curb in young, middle-age and older adults. Single and dual-task voice reaction time (VRT) was measured in community-dwelling young (n = 24), middle-age (n = 24), and older adults (n = 24) across 5 conditions: sitting in a chair, standing, level walking, and walking toward and while stepping up onto a curb. A 3 (group) by 5 (task condition) ANOVA was used to examine VRT. The interaction of group with task revealed statistically significant within group increases in VRT when comparing either sitting and/or standing to walking on a level surface and walking toward the curb and stepping up onto the curb. When compared to the other groups, older adults had significantly longer VRT for all walking tasks. Stepping onto the curb significantly increased the attentional requirements of walking for all of the groups when compared to level walking. The pattern of statistically significant between group and within group differences during the walking tasks indicate the effects of a curb located at a predictable place in the environment on attentional allocation.
社区步行需要有能力根据行进路径中已知位置出现的障碍物改变步态。从环境中获取信息以安全地越过路缘可能会增加行走的认知需求。本研究的目的是研究年轻人、中年人、老年人在向路缘行走和踏上路缘时的注意力需求。在 5 种条件下，对社区居住的年轻人（n = 24）、中年人（n = 24）和老年人（n = 24）进行了单一和双重任务语音反应时间（VRT）测量：坐在椅子上、站立、水平行走，以及向路缘行走和踏上路缘时。使用 3（组）×5（任务条件）方差分析来检查 VRT。组与任务的交互作用表明，与在水平表面上行走相比，无论是坐在椅子上和/或站立还是行走，组内的 VRT 都会显著增加，向路缘行走和踏上路缘时也是如此。与其他组相比，老年人在所有行走任务中的 VRT 都明显更长。与水平行走相比，所有组在踏上路缘时，行走的注意力要求都显著增加。在行走任务中，组间和组内差异的统计学显著模式表明，位于环境中可预测位置的路缘对注意力分配有影响。
