TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2015//
TI  - 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
JO  - Frontiers in human neuroscience
A1  - Wayne, Peter M.
A1  - Hausdorff, Jeffrey M.
A1  - Lough, Matthew
A1  - Gow, Brian J.
A1  - Lipsitz, Lewis
A1  - Novak, Vera
A1  - Macklin, Eric A.
A1  - Peng, Chung-Kang
A1  - Manor, Brad
SP  - 332
EP  - 332
VL  - 9
IS  - 
N2  - 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>
LA  - en
SN  - 1662-5161
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00332
ID  - ref1
ER  -