CLINICAL, FUNCTIONAL AND POSTUROGRAPHIC EVALUATION UNDER DIFFERENTS CONDITIONS OF DUAL TASK IN ELDERLY
Parkinson's disease; Postural balance; cognitive dysfunction; gait; aging.
Introduction: The aging process triggers intense physiological changes that can lead to impairment of physical and cognitive capacities in the elderly and that tend to decrease mobility and restrict daily activities. Memory is one of the first functions to regress in aging, with difficulties in activities involving evocation and visuospatial recognition in dual task (DT) conditions. The interaction between aging and pathological processes can profoundly impact cognitive and physical function, as seen in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), dementia and idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), which affect the elderly. Objectives: To describe and analyze the interference of the cognitive task on static postural control through a dual cognitive-motor task evaluation protocol; describe and verify the association between performance of dual task, mobility and clinical-functional aspects in healthy elderly, elderly with MCI and elderly with PD, comparing them; to verify the perception and preferences related to the dual task in healthy elderly, elderly with CCL and elderly with PD, comparing them. Methods: The study presents a cross-sectional and analytical design, with a non-probabilistic sample and for convenience. The participants were submitted to clinical-functional evaluation through 13 measurement instruments and evaluation of static postural control through computerized posturography with evaluation protocol composed of 16 conditions, 14 conditions of dual motor-cognitive task. Results: A total of 35 elderly patients were included in three groups: healthy elderly (n=15), mild cognitive impairment (n=9) and Parkinson's disease group (n=11). For the mobility tests, there was a temporal increase during the execution of dual motor and cognitive tasks for the three groups compared to the simple tests. Motor DT in lane 8 resulted in longer execution times for all three groups. In all the posturography evaluation conditions the elderly with MCI showed less correctness in relation to the other groups, especially for citation of months with use of pop music. Conclusions: The 8-lane mobility test with or without double task is useful as an evaluation method for elderly patients with or without neurological dysfunction with a strong correlation of the test at 8 with sit-ups and Time Up and Go tests. of evaluation protocol with the use of dual motor-cognitive task allowed the verification of the interference of the cognitive task on the postural control, especially the tasks of verbal fluency. The protocol was easy to apply and understood by the elderly, simple and feasible. Most individuals considered DT to be easy to perform and that the addition of music did not hinder orthostatism.