Do voluntary step reactions in dual task conditions have an added value over single task for fall prediction? A prospective study

Abstract

Voluntary Step Execution Test in both single- and dual-task conditions is a simple and safe examination which can potentially and effectively predict future falls, with no added value to dual- over single-task condition.

Gait initiation time is associated with the risk of multiple falls—A population-based study

“…Prior studies also included people from retirement villages making the results less generalizable to all community dwelling older people [11,13]. In the only prospective study [12] of volunteers from retirement homes, slower step execution times under both single and dual-task were associated with increased odds of multiple falls [12], which is in agreement with results from our population-based study.…”

“…GI time was not associated with single falls over 12 months. This is in agreement with a study of people from retirement homes [12], as well as previous findings that impaired physiological and cognitive measures [21,1] are not associated with single falls. It is possible that single falls are due to factors not measured in this study, such as dizziness or incontinence.…”

“…Previous findings have differed in the relationship between GI [8, [10][11][12] or stepping tests [13] and falls risk, with some reporting an increased risk under single [12,13] or dual-task [8,11,12], while others reported no association under single-task [8,10]. Conflicting findings may be explained by the use of differing samples including volunteers [8,10] or residents from retirement villages [11][12][13] or by retrospective falls ascertainment, potentially leading to recall bias [8,10,11,13].…”

“…Conflicting findings may be explained by the use of differing samples including volunteers [8,10] or residents from retirement villages [11][12][13] or by retrospective falls ascertainment, potentially leading to recall bias [8,10,11,13]. To our knowledge there has only been one prospective study, where slower step execution times were associated with recurrent falls [12]. This study included volunteers from retirement homes which may not be generalizable to all older people living in the community.…”

Designing for Movement Quality in Exergames: Lessons Learned from Observing Senior Citizens Playing Stepping Games

“…Furthermore, stepping allows us to avoid obstacles and counter potentially destabilizing events such as slips, trips, and missteps. Impaired stepping responses in older persons have been associated with falls and when exposed to an external perturbation, previous fallers are more likely to take a step that is too short, too slow, or in the wrong direction, to collide one leg against the other during lateral compensatory stepping, and to be distracted when stepping under dual task conditions [13,14]. In addition, for daily life stepping and walking to be adaptive, these functions must possess richness in both the temporal and spatial domains, consisting of the ability to make steps of different sizes at different speeds in different directions, dependent on the task at hand [15].…”