WALKING TO METRICALLY CUED MUSIC: HOW IT AFFECTS GAIT AND BALANCE IN HEALTHY OLDER ADULTS

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Grant, D. (2018). WALKING TO METRICALLY CUED MUSIC: HOW IT AFFECTS GAIT AND BALANCE IN HEALTHY OLDER ADULTS. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Introduction: Gait impairments are a major cause of falls in older adult populations, associated with decreased functional capacity and increased morbidity. Recent studies have reported using rhythmic auditory stimuli to positively influence motor skill capacity. It is likely that rhythmic auditory stimuli may present a means to improve gait and, therefore, function in healthy older adults. Objective: To examine the efficacy of auditory isochronous stimuli (AIS) at improving gait and balance in healthy older adults.Methods: Thirty-five recreationally active healthy older adults participated in this study. Participants completed a baseline testing session consisting of clinical tests for functional performance and fall risk, and a plantar region analysis of gait. This was followed by a 4-week walking intervention. Participants either walked while listening to music including AIS (CLICK), walked while listening to music without AIS (MUSIC), or simply walked for 30 minutes 3x/week. Following the intervention, participants repeated clinical tests and gait analysis. Clinical tests for functional performance and fall risk included a timed up and go (TUG) test and unipedal stance test (UPST). Gait analysis was conducted with the Pedar-X insole system while participants walked at a comfortable speed for a distance of 30 feet. All clinical test and gait analysis outcomes were analyzed using group × time repeated measures ANOVAs. Tukey’s Post hoc analysis and paired samples t-tests were conducted in the event of significant interactions. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (v24, IBM Corporation, West Armonk, NY). Alpha was set a priori at P<0.05.Results: There was a significant group × time interaction for TUG (P=0.044). Additionally, there was a significant time main effect, suggesting improved TUG times at post-testing compared to baseline (P=0.046). Post hoc analyses revealed that the CLICK group improved their scores from baseline to follow-up (P=0.035). Gait data revealed no significant group × time interactions for any variable. There was, however, a significant time main effect for stride time suggesting that regardless of group, participants demonstrated lower post-test stride times compared to baseline (P=0.031). Conclusions: Walking while listening to music that included AIS improved TUG test performance in healthy older adults. This intervention had minimal effects on gait. Given the association between TUG time and fall risk, it appears that walking while listening to music with embedded AIS can be an effective intervention to reduce fall risk in community dwelling, older adults.

Details
Author

Grant, Darryl

Title

WALKING TO METRICALLY CUED MUSIC: HOW IT AFFECTS GAIT AND BALANCE IN HEALTHY OLDER ADULTS

Physical Description

1 online resource (38 pages) : PDF

Date

2018

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Introduction: Gait impairments are a major cause of falls in older adult populations, associated with decreased functional capacity and increased morbidity. Recent studies have reported using rhythmic auditory stimuli to positively influence motor skill capacity. It is likely that rhythmic auditory stimuli may present a means to improve gait and, therefore, function in healthy older adults. Objective: To examine the efficacy of auditory isochronous stimuli (AIS) at improving gait and balance in healthy older adults.Methods: Thirty-five recreationally active healthy older adults participated in this study. Participants completed a baseline testing session consisting of clinical tests for functional performance and fall risk, and a plantar region analysis of gait. This was followed by a 4-week walking intervention. Participants either walked while listening to music including AIS (CLICK), walked while listening to music without AIS (MUSIC), or simply walked for 30 minutes 3x/week. Following the intervention, participants repeated clinical tests and gait analysis. Clinical tests for functional performance and fall risk included a timed up and go (TUG) test and unipedal stance test (UPST). Gait analysis was conducted with the Pedar-X insole system while participants walked at a comfortable speed for a distance of 30 feet. All clinical test and gait analysis outcomes were analyzed using group × time repeated measures ANOVAs. Tukey’s Post hoc analysis and paired samples t-tests were conducted in the event of significant interactions. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (v24, IBM Corporation, West Armonk, NY). Alpha was set a priori at P<0.05.Results: There was a significant group × time interaction for TUG (P=0.044). Additionally, there was a significant time main effect, suggesting improved TUG times at post-testing compared to baseline (P=0.046). Post hoc analyses revealed that the CLICK group improved their scores from baseline to follow-up (P=0.035). Gait data revealed no significant group × time interactions for any variable. There was, however, a significant time main effect for stride time suggesting that regardless of group, participants demonstrated lower post-test stride times compared to baseline (P=0.031). Conclusions: Walking while listening to music that included AIS improved TUG test performance in healthy older adults. This intervention had minimal effects on gait. Given the association between TUG time and fall risk, it appears that walking while listening to music with embedded AIS can be an effective intervention to reduce fall risk in community dwelling, older adults.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

Kinesiology
Gerontology

Degree

M.S.

Keywords

Balance
Gait
Metric Cued Music
Older Adult

Subject Area

Kinesiology

Advisor(s)

Fenwick-Thomas, Abbey

Committee Members

Donovan, Luke
Turner, Michael

Degree Note

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2018.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Grant_uncc_0694N_11850

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1249