Introduction: Walking is a fundamental ability that is often performed simultaneously with other tasks. Competition for limited attentional resources may reduce the efficiency of one or both tasks and increse the risk of falls. Dual-task gait assessment provides better insight into walking under conditions representative of everyday life. Purpose: The aim of this master thesis was to determine the reliability of spatiotemporal gait parameters measured on a treadmill in healthy adults during single-task walking and walking with a verbal fluency task, and to investigate the effects of verbal fluency task and substraction tasks on the Timed Up and Go and treadmill walking in stroke patients. Methods: The study included 31 healthy participants and 28 stroke patients. Healthy participants performed treadmill walking in two separate measurement sessions. Stroke patients performed Timed Up and Go and treadmill walking without an additional task and with verbal fluency and serial substraction tasks. The reliability was assessed using the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). The effects of additional tasks were evaluated using dual-task cost. Results: High to excellent reliability (ICC = 0,82–0,99) was found for most spatiotemporal gait parameters both without an additional task and with the verbal fluency task, while two of the analyzed variables during dual-task walking showed moderate reliability (ICC = 0,75). In stroke patients, both additional tasks significantly prolonged Timed Up and Go completion time (3,0–3,9 s) and increased the number of stepst taken (1,6–2,5 steps/min) (p < 0,001). During treadmill walking, the effects of additional tasks were less pronounced; a statistically significant difference was found only for cadence (2,6 steps/min) (p = 0,004). Comparison between healthy participants and stroke patients did not show a greater effect of the verbal fluency task in the stroke group. Discussion and conclusion: Measurements of spatiotemporal gait parameters on a treadmill are reliable in healthy adults both with and without a verbal fluency task. Timed Up and Go with an additional cognitive task appears to be more sensitive for detecting dual-task effects in patients after stroke, whereas treadmill walking provides a standardized assessment of gait changes.
|