@article{ref1,
title="The immediate effect of a novel audio-visual cueing strategy (simulated traffic lights) on dual-task walking in people with Parkinson's disease",
journal="European journal of physical and rehabilitation medicine",
year="2013",
author="Mak, M. K. Y. and Yu, L. and Hui-Chan, Christina Wan Ying",
volume="49",
number="2",
pages="153-159",
abstract="Background: Gait deficits are exacerbated during the addition of a concurrent cognitive task in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). The provision of auditory and/or visual cues has been reported to facilitate gait performance in these patients. Aim: To investigate whether individuals with PD could use traffic lights as an audio-visual cueing strategy to enhance dual-task walking performance. Design: Cross-sectional comparative study. Setting: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Population: Fifteen PD and 13 healthy individuals. Methods: All participants were instructed to walk at their natural pace, followed by 2 randomized conditions: 1) walking while doing serial subtractions of three, starting from a random number between 60 to 100; 2) doing the same tasks with the addition of traffic lights signals as audio-visual cues. Primary outcomes included stride length, cadence and gait velocity. Results: Individuals with PD had more deterioration in all gait parameters than healthy controls for both single- and dual-task walking. With the use of traffic lights, individuals with PD showed significant increases in stride length (by 8.8%), cadence (by 9.6%), and gait velocity (by 21.0%, P=0.000). Conclusion: Traffic lights could be used as combined preparatory and ongoing audio-visual cues to enhance dual-task walking performance in people with PD. Clinical Rehabilitation Impact: Positive findings from the present study suggest a promising treatment intervention to benefit people with PD, who often have to conduct concurrent cognitive task during walking in their daily activities.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1973-9087",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}