Investigation of the effect of different cognitive load conditions on spatiotemporal gait parameters in alzheimer's patients

In this study, Alzheimer's patients and cognitively healthy individuals in the same age group; The effect of different cognitive load conditions on the spatiotemporal gait parameters was investigated by comparing them. Our study included 17 Alzheimer's patients and 20 cognitively healthy individuals. The study was carried out at the Konya Alzheimer's Day Living Center, which operates in cooperation with Necmettin Erbakan University, Karatay Municipality and the Alzheimer's Association of Turkey. Socio-demographic information of the cases in the study was obtained and Mini Mental State Test (MMST), Timed Up and Go Test (TUG), Tinetti Balance&Gait Test (TBT&TGT) and Spatiotemporal Gait Analysis were performed on the subjects. Spatiotemporal Gait Analysis was performed with the help of an accelerometer that can be carried on the body. The subjects were given three different walking tasks: walking without cognitive task, walking by saying the names of acquaintances (people in the environment) as a low cognitive task condition, walking by backwards subtracting 3 from 100 as a high cognitive task condition. When the results of the study are examined: The MMSE, TBT&TGT scores of the Alzheimer group were found to be significantly lower than the control group (p<0,05). TUG scores were found to be remarkably higher in the Alzheimer group (p<0.05). Walking time and step time values in three different walking tests were found to be significantly higher in the Alzheimer group compared to the control group (p<0.05). Cadence, walking speed and stride length parameter values were found to be significantly lower in Alzheimer's patients (p<0.05). Percentage of stance phase, percentage of swing phase, percentage of double support and percentage of single support that make up the gait cycle, showed inconsistent results between Alzheimer's and control groups in walking tests. Changes between tasks; walking speed and stride length decreased more in Alzheimer's patients compared to the control group (p<0.05), walking time values were found to be remarkably higher in the Alzheimer group (p<0.05). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of cadence, step time, stance phase percentage, swing phase percentage, double support percentage and single support percentage values (p>0.05). According to the results obtained, we can state that adding a cognitive task to the walking task caused changes in the spatiotemporal walking parameters in both groups, and that the deterioration in some parameters was more in Alzheimer's patients. KeyWords: Alzheimer's disease, cognitive task, dual task, spatiotemporal parameter, walking test.