@article{ref1,
title="Tai chi training may reduce dual task gait variability, a potential mediator of fall risk, in healthy older adults: cross-sectional and randomized trial studies",
journal="Frontiers in human neuroscience",
year="2015",
author="Wayne, Peter M. and Hausdorff, Jeffrey M. and Lough, Matthew and Gow, Brian J. and Lipsitz, Lewis and Novak, Vera and Macklin, Eric A. and Peng, Chung-Kang and Manor, Brad",
volume="9",
number="",
pages="332-332",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Tai Chi (TC) exercise improves balance and reduces falls in older, health-impaired adults. TC's impact on dual task (DT) gait parameters predictive of falls, especially in healthy active older adults, however, is unknown. <br><br>PURPOSE: To compare differences in usual and DT gait between long-term TC-expert practitioners and age-/gender-matched TC-naïve adults, and to determine the effects of short-term TC training on gait in healthy, non-sedentary older adults. <br><br>METHODS: A cross-sectional study compared gait in healthy TC-naïve and TC-expert (24.5 ± 12 years experience) older adults. TC-naïve adults then completed a 6-month, two-arm, wait-list randomized clinical trial of TC training. Gait speed and stride time variability (Coefficient of Variation %) were assessed during 90 s trials of undisturbed and cognitive DT (serial subtractions) conditions. <br><br>RESULTS: During DT, gait speed decreased (p < 0.003) and stride time variability increased (p < 0.004) in all groups. Cross-sectional comparisons indicated that stride time variability was lower in the TC-expert vs. TC-naïve group, significantly so during DT (2.11 vs. 2.55%; p = 0.027); by contrast, gait speed during both undisturbed and DT conditions did not differ between groups. Longitudinal analyses of TC-naïve adults randomized to 6 months of TC training or usual care identified improvement in DT gait speed in both groups. A small improvement in DT stride time variability (effect size = 0.2) was estimated with TC training, but no significant differences between groups were observed. Potentially important improvements after TC training could not be excluded in this small study. <br><br>CONCLUSION: In healthy active older adults, positive effects of short- and long-term TC were observed only under cognitively challenging DT conditions and only for stride time variability. DT stride time variability offers a potentially sensitive metric for monitoring TC's impact on fall risk with healthy older adults.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1662-5161",
doi="10.3389/fnhum.2015.00332",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00332"
}