Physical Therapy Department, University College of Northern Denmark, Aalborg, Denmark.
Research and Development Department, University College of Northern Denmark, Aalborg, Denmark.
PLoS One. 2019 Jun 27;14(6):e0218371. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218371. eCollection 2019.
Assessment of balance is key to identifying individuals with postural control deficits and an increased fall risk. Subjects may compensate for their deficits by utilizing other strategies; to avoid this, it is recommended to assess postural control using a dual-task test. In most dual-task tests, it is difficult to monitor the performance in the secondary task and the individual's task prioritisation. This study evaluated a new dual-task testing approach.
A convenience sample of 54 community-dwelling elderly (age 65+ years) and a reference group of 20 young participants were included in the study. They performed a test in which they could utilize cues to improve their baseline performance, provided their level of postural control allowed them residual attention capacity for this cognitive task.
Significant performance differences were seen between the young and the elderly. The young group improved their performance time by 23.9% (10.7) and 7.1% (14.2) with a cue and a reverse cue, respectively, whereas the elderly failed to improve their performance time. The test was unable to distinguish between individuals within the elderly group due to a floor effect.
The test reveals an individual's capacity to use cues for anticipatory postural control strategies in a dual-task setting and thereby estimates automatization of postural control. While the young subjects were capable of improving their performance during dual-task conditions, the elderly subjects apparently had no residual attentional capacity allowing them to utilize the facilitating cues. Within the elderly group, the dual-task aspects of the test added no value with respect to differentiation in the level of postural control.
评估平衡能力是识别姿势控制缺陷和增加跌倒风险个体的关键。为了避免这种情况，建议使用双重任务测试来评估姿势控制。在大多数双重任务测试中，很难监测次要任务的表现和个体的任务优先级。本研究评估了一种新的双重任务测试方法。
本研究纳入了 54 名居住在社区的老年人（年龄在 65 岁以上）和 20 名年轻参与者的参考组作为便利样本。他们进行了一项测试，在该测试中，他们可以利用线索来提高他们的基线表现，前提是他们的姿势控制水平允许他们为这个认知任务保留注意力容量。
年轻人和老年人之间的表现存在显著差异。年轻人组分别使用线索和反向线索，其表现时间分别提高了 23.9%（10.7）和 7.1%（14.2），而老年人组则未能提高其表现时间。由于存在地板效应，该测试无法区分老年人组内的个体。
该测试揭示了个体在双重任务环境中使用线索进行预期姿势控制策略的能力，从而估计了姿势控制的自动化程度。虽然年轻受试者能够在双重任务条件下提高他们的表现，但老年受试者显然没有剩余的注意力容量来利用促进线索。在老年人组中，测试的双重任务方面在区分姿势控制水平方面没有价值。
