Influence of a dual-task on toe clearance of the young and elderly while stepping over an obstacle

Abstract

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of a dual-task condition on toe clearance of young and elderly subjects while stepping over an obstacle. [Subjects] The subjects were 30 young women and 30 community-dwelling elderly women. [Methods] The subjects were asked to perform two types of tasks. One was a dual-task consisting of a motor task with a concurrent cognitive task. The other was a solitary motor task. The motor task was stepping over an obstacle during comfortable gait. The cognitive task was a 7-series task. We measured toe clearance in performance of both the single and dual tasks. [Results] Although a two-way ANOVA showed that toe clearance was not influenced by the dual- task, heel obstacle distance decreased. [Conclusion] These results clarified that during the dual-task the movement of stepping over the obstacle was different from stepping over the obstacle during comfortable gait.