Single-Task or Dual-Task? Gait Assessment as a Potential Diagnostic Tool for Alzheimer’s Dementia

BACKGROUND: A person’s gait performance requires the integration of sensorimotor and cognitive systems. Therefore, a person’s gait may be influenced by concurrent cognitive load such as simultaneous talking. Although it has been known that gait performance of people with Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) is compromised when they attempt a dual-task walking task, it is unclear if using a dual-task gait performance during an AD assessment yields higher diagnostic accuracy. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to compare the predictive power for AD of dual-task gait performance in an AD assessment to that of single-task gait performance. METHODS: Participants (14 with AD and 15 healthy controls) walked across the GAITRite© Portable Walkway mat under three different cognitive load conditions: no simultaneous cognitive load, walking while counting numbers by ones, and walking while completing category naming. RESULTS: Multiple logistic regression revealed that the gait performance under a dual-task condition (i.e., concurrent counting or category naming) increased the proportion of variance explained by the FAP, SL, and DST, of the incidence of AD. CONCLUSION: Dual-task walking and talking may be a more effective diagnostic feature than single-task walking in a comprehensive AD diagnostic assessment.