Single-Task or Dual-Task? Gait Assessment as a Potential Diagnostic Tool for Alzheimer's Dementia

Abstract

Background: A person's gait performance requires the integration of sensorimotor and cognitive systems. Therefore, a person's gait may be influenced by concurrent cognitive load such as simultaneous talking. Although it has been known that gait performance of people with Alzheimer's dementia (AD) is compromised when they attempt a dual-task walking task, it is unclear if using a dual-task gait performance during an AD assessment yields higher diagnostic accuracy. Objective: This study was designed to compare the predictive power for AD of dual-task gait performance in an AD assessment to that of single-task gait performance. Methods: Participants (14 with AD and 15 healthy controls) walked across the GAITRite