Discerning the Contribution of Balance and Mobility to Ambulatory Activity in Community-dwelling Octogenarians: a Preliminary Report

Date
2018
Authors
Lord, S
Isbey, O
Del-Din, S
Rochester, L
Taylor, L
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
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Publisher
Physiotherapy New Zealand
Abstract

Adults are encouraged to maintain levels of physical activity throughout their life span. This study describes gait performance and ambulatory activity (as a key component of physical activity) in 15 community- dwelling octogenarians and examines the association between activity measured continuously for 5 days with a tri-axial accelerometer and clinical measures of balance and functional mobility. Outcomes represented macro features of ambulatory activity and included volume, pattern and variability of activity. Micro gait outcomes were derived from each walking bout and represented 14 discrete spatio-temporal characteristics of gait. Participants walked a median of 9,294 steps/day (range 5,121-18,231). For macro outcomes, the strongest associations were established for Timed up and Go (TUG) single and dual task times and mean bout length (rs = -.66, p = 0.006, and -.68, p = 0.005 respectively; Spearman’s rho), and TUG dual task and accumulation of walking bouts (alpha) (α) (rs = -.67, p = 0.006). For micro outcomes, there was a positive correlation between step velocity and the Activities Balance and Confidence Scale (rs = .67 p = 0.006), and a negative correlation between step velocity and TUG single task (rs = .71, p = 0.003). TUG dual task showed a positive association with step time asymmetry (rs = .65 p = 0.008) and swing time asymmetry (r = .66, p = 0.004). For this group of active octogenarians, associations between ambulatory activity and functional mobility were stronger than for balance.

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Source
New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy, 46(3): 133-138. doi:10.15619/NZJP/46.3.05
Rights statement
New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy. All rights reserved. Permission is given to copy, store and redistribute the material in this publication for non-commercial purposes, in any medium or format as long as appropriate credit is given to the source of the material. No derivatives from the original articles are permissible.