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The Effect of Age on Gait Speed When Texting
Texting while walking exerts a high cognitive load, and may be a sensitive test of the integrity of the cognitive–motor interface. We aimed to investigate the association between chronological age and gait speed while texting. A convenience sample of 308 community-dwellers was recruited: n ≥ 50 in e...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7014418/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31963409 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020599 |
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author | Alapatt, Linson J. Peel, Nancye M. Reid, Natasha Gray, Leonard C. Hubbard, Ruth E. |
author_facet | Alapatt, Linson J. Peel, Nancye M. Reid, Natasha Gray, Leonard C. Hubbard, Ruth E. |
author_sort | Alapatt, Linson J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Texting while walking exerts a high cognitive load, and may be a sensitive test of the integrity of the cognitive–motor interface. We aimed to investigate the association between chronological age and gait speed while texting. A convenience sample of 308 community-dwellers was recruited: n ≥ 50 in each age group (20–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59) and n = 100 aged ≥60 years. Gait speed was measured over 10 metres under two experimental conditions: 1) walking at usual pace; 2) walking at usual pace while texting the message “Good morning Harry” on their smartphone. Both median gait speed with and without texting decreased with increasing age (p < 0.001). The differences between single- and dual-task gait speed were substantial for each age group and increased after the age of 50 years (p < 0.001). Median gait speeds while texting in people aged 50–59 (1.07 m/s) and ≥60 years (1.00 m/s) were below the recommended minimum for safely crossing roads (1.20 m/s). Texting while walking currently exposes people aged 50 and over to considerable environmental hazards. The significant slowing of gait speed while texting from middle age may be a marker of neurodegeneration, a cohort effect, or an appropriate compensatory response to reduce the risk of injury. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7014418 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-70144182020-03-09 The Effect of Age on Gait Speed When Texting Alapatt, Linson J. Peel, Nancye M. Reid, Natasha Gray, Leonard C. Hubbard, Ruth E. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Texting while walking exerts a high cognitive load, and may be a sensitive test of the integrity of the cognitive–motor interface. We aimed to investigate the association between chronological age and gait speed while texting. A convenience sample of 308 community-dwellers was recruited: n ≥ 50 in each age group (20–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59) and n = 100 aged ≥60 years. Gait speed was measured over 10 metres under two experimental conditions: 1) walking at usual pace; 2) walking at usual pace while texting the message “Good morning Harry” on their smartphone. Both median gait speed with and without texting decreased with increasing age (p < 0.001). The differences between single- and dual-task gait speed were substantial for each age group and increased after the age of 50 years (p < 0.001). Median gait speeds while texting in people aged 50–59 (1.07 m/s) and ≥60 years (1.00 m/s) were below the recommended minimum for safely crossing roads (1.20 m/s). Texting while walking currently exposes people aged 50 and over to considerable environmental hazards. The significant slowing of gait speed while texting from middle age may be a marker of neurodegeneration, a cohort effect, or an appropriate compensatory response to reduce the risk of injury. MDPI 2020-01-17 2020-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7014418/ /pubmed/31963409 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020599 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Alapatt, Linson J. Peel, Nancye M. Reid, Natasha Gray, Leonard C. Hubbard, Ruth E. The Effect of Age on Gait Speed When Texting |
title | The Effect of Age on Gait Speed When Texting |
title_full | The Effect of Age on Gait Speed When Texting |
title_fullStr | The Effect of Age on Gait Speed When Texting |
title_full_unstemmed | The Effect of Age on Gait Speed When Texting |
title_short | The Effect of Age on Gait Speed When Texting |
title_sort | effect of age on gait speed when texting |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7014418/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31963409 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020599 |
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