Restoring Walking Complexity in Older Adults Through Arm-in-Arm Walking: Were Almurad et al.’s (2018) Results an Artifact?

Abstract

The analysis of stride series revealed a loss of complexity in older people, which correlated with the falling propensity. A recent experiment evidenced an increase of walking complexity in older participants when they walked in close synchrony with a younger companion. Moreover, a prolonged experience of such synchronized walking yielded a persistent restoration of complexity. This result, however, was obtained with a unique healthy partner, and it could be related to a particular partner’s behavior. The authors’ aim was to replicate this important finding using a different healthy partner and to compare the results to those previously obtained. The authors successfully replicated the previous results: synchronization yielded an attraction of participants’ complexity toward that of their partner and a restoration of complexity that persisted in two posttests, 2 and 6 weeks after the end of the training sessions. This study shows that this complexity restoration protocol can be applied successfully with another partner, and allows us to conclude that it can be generalized.

Restoring walking ability in older adults with arm-in-arm gait training: study protocol for the AAGaTT randomized controlled trial

“…They observed a restoration of complexity in the older participants after three weeks, and this effect persisted two weeks after the end of the training session. These results were further confirmed in another study with different participants [ 27 ]. Although these results are promising, the restoration of a healthy complex gait does not necessarily imply a relevant improvement in the motor function.…”

“…The general idea of this research project is to confirm the results of Almurad et al [26,27] in a larger sample. The main modification to Almurad's protocol is that the "gait teacher" during arm-in-arm walking will be a younger person (different for each older participant) rather than a member of the study staff (the same for each older participant).…”

A guide to Whittle maximum likelihood estimator in MATLAB

“…The estimation of the H exponent has become very relevant in the fields of health and aging because this fractal structure tends to diminish or even disappear with the first signs of age or disease, making the exponent H a very promising predictor. We (Almurad et al, 2017;Almurad et al, 2018;Ezzina et al, 2021) have also suggested, through several studies, that it was possible to restore complexity in older adults. However, all the participants in our studies were characterized by healthy aging and did not have any motor disability limiting their movements.…”