Influence of frailty and cognitive decline on dual task performance in older adults: an analytical cross-sectional study.
Francine Golghetto Casemiro, Lucas Pelegrini Nogueira de Carvalho, Fernanda de Brito Matiello and 2 others
PMID 39969040WHAT IT FOUND
Frailty was associated with slower gait and dual-task walking in 219 older adults; cognitive decline was not related to these walking times.
Key findings
01Frailty was significantly related to worse gait performance during single-task and dual-task walking.
02Cognitive decline was not related to gait speed, motor dual-task time, or cognitive dual-task time.
03In multiple regression, frailty remained associated with motor dual-task time and cognitive dual-task time.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The cross-sectional design cannot show that frailty caused slower gait or that dual-task walking predicts decline. Participants came from a public outpatient clinic, and most were pre-frail (59.82%), frail (39.27%), had cognitive decline (57.48%), and used the public health system (97.72%), so results may not apply to healthier community-dwelling older adults. Only 2 participants were classified as non-frail, limiting comparison across frailty groups. The authors note that gait and cognitive assessments vary across studies, making comparison difficult. No intervention was tested, so the study cannot show whether treating frailty improves dual-task walking.
Declared interests
Supported by CNPq grant #436710/2018-8; the paper is extracted from a doctoral dissertation.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that cognitive decline causes slower dual-task walking. In this study, cognitive decline was not related to gait speed (p = .095), motor dual-task time (p = .124), or cognitive dual-task time (p = .069), and the design was cross-sectional.