Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the biggest social and medical concerns in the aging world. A dual task of walking and talking is a particularly practical means to assess AD considering the cognitive and behavioral changes that characterize the disease. The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of the dual task of walking and talking on people with early stage AD under differing cognitive load levels of talking. Participants (9 women and 5 men, mean age (years) = 78.03, standard deviation [SD] = 12.06) with mild or moderate AD (mean Dementia Rating Scale 2 score = 88.14, SD = 7.07) completed 12 monthly walking sessions under no, low, or high cognitive load. They also completed the low and high cognitive load tasks while seated. Linear mixed-effects modeling revealed that values in the Functional Ambulation Profile, stride length, and velocity decreased as tasks became more complex and double support time increased at the same rate. The walking and seated conditions comparison indicated that participants' performance on both low and high cognitive tasks was poor when they were walking rather than seated. The results show that people with early stage AD exhibited gait impairments that increased over time and when completing tasks with greater cognitive load.

中文翻译：

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与阿尔茨海默氏病相关的步态的时空参数：纵向分析。

阿尔茨海默氏病（AD）是衰老世界中最大的社会和医学关注之一。考虑到表征疾病的认知和行为变化，走路和说话的双重任务是评估AD的一种特别实用的方法。这项研究的目的是评估在说话的认知负荷水平不同的情况下，走路和说话双重任务对患有早期AD的人的影响。参与者（9名女性和5名男性，平均年龄（年）= 78.03，标准差[SD] = 12.06），轻度或中度AD（平均痴呆等级量表2得分= 88.14，SD = 7.07）完成了12个月的无压力行走，低或高认知负荷。他们还坐着完成了低认知负荷和高认知负荷的任务。线性混合效果模型显示，功能行走曲线，步幅，随着任务变得更加复杂，速度下降，并且双倍支持时间以相同的速度增加。步行和就座条件的比较表明，参与者在步行而不是就座时在低认知和高认知任务上的表现均较差。结果表明，患有早期AD的人表现出步态障碍，随着时间的推移以及完成具有更大认知负荷的任务时，步态障碍会增加。