Dual task effects on functional performance in community-dwelling elderly

Abstract

The purpose was to assess the effect of six different dual tasks in community dwelling elderly. Thirty-five volunteers (aged 69.6±7.1 years) were submitted to the Timed Up and Go test (TUG) and to further five tasks wherein TUG was associated to two motor tasks - carrying a glass of water (TUGM1) and transferring coins from one pocket to another (TUGM2); to two cognitive tasks - repeating a sentence (TUGC1) and saying weekdays backwards (TUGC2); and to a motor-cognitive task, of carrying a glass of water while repeating a sentence (TUGMC). Time spent, failure and success in each task were counted. Results showed a significant decrease in average time (in seconds) spent in TUG when associated with all tasks; and a significant correlation from moderate (r=0.676) to almost perfect (r=0.953) between the times of each association with TUG. The number of transferred coins in TUGM2 and the number of days of the week correctly said in TUGC2 showed a correlation with the time spent in all the other tasks. These two tasks most affected the time spent to accomplish TUG (p<0.001). Hence, dwelling community elderly showed a decrease in performance at all dual tasks associated to TUG. The worst functional performances were transferring coins from one pocket to another and saying weekdays backwards, showing that task complexity, rather than task nature, had greater impact on the time spent to perform TUG.