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Updated: Jul 10, 2026
Clinical Assessment of Spatiotemporal Gait Parameters in Patients and Older Adults
Published on: November 7, 2014
The influence of dual-task activities on spatiotemporal gait parameters in patients with cardiovascular diseases
Verônica Filter de Andrade1, Alesandra Costa2, Laura Buzin Zapparoli3
1PhD candidate in Health Sciences at Universidade de Caxias do Sul (UCS), Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Insights
Dual-tasking similarly impacts gait in individuals with cardiovascular disease and healthy controls, showing no significant group differences in most parameters. This suggests dual-task interventions may not uniquely challenge cardiovascular patients differently than healthy individuals.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Gait Analysis
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are often linked to motor and cognitive impairments.
- Assessing gait under dual-task (DT) conditions can reveal subtle functional deficits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of dual-tasking on spatiotemporal gait parameters in patients with cardiovascular diseases.
- To compare the effects of DT on gait between individuals with CVD and a healthy control group.
Main Methods:
- An observational, cross-sectional study involving 28 male participants (14 with CVD, 14 controls) aged 51-77.
- Gait parameters were measured using a motion analysis system during single-task and dual-task (cognitive + gait) conditions.
- Statistical analysis included mixed ANOVA with post-hoc tests and Bonferroni correction.
Main Results:
- The cardiovascular disease group (CVDG) exhibited significantly narrower step width compared to the control group (CG).
- Dual-tasking significantly reduced gait speed, cadence, step length, and stride time in both groups.
- A significant interaction effect showed the CVDG had longer step times during specific DTs compared to their single-task gait.
Conclusions:
- Dual-tasking activities similarly affected the gait parameters of both cardiovascular disease patients and healthy controls.
- No significant differences in gait parameters were observed between groups during single-task or dual-task conditions, except for step width.
- Despite potential motor and cognitive declines associated with CVD, dual-tasking did not reveal differential impacts on gait in this patient group compared to controls.
Objectives:
This study aimed to evaluate the influence of dual-task (DT) on the spatiotemporal gait parameters of patients with cardiovascular diseases.
Design:
This was an observational, cross-sectional, and comparative study. Participants: The study included 28 males, aged between 51 and 77 years, divided into two groups: Cardiovascular Disease Group (CVDG - N = 14) and Control Group (CG - N = 14). Main outcome measures: Participants performed the simple gait task and dual-task activities (including the cognitive and gait tasks) in a motion analysis system. For statistical analysis, it was conducted a mixed analysis of variance (Mixed ANOVA) and for significant main effects (condition or group) or interactions (group × condition) it was performed post-hoc tests with Bonferroni correction. A significance level (alpha) of 0.05 was set.
Results:
Group comparisons revealed a significant difference solely in step width, where the CVDG showed lower mean values than the CG (p = 0.001). However, DTs similarly affected both groups, resulting in significant reductions in gait speed (p = 0.000), cadence (p = 0.002), step length (p = 0.000), and stride time (p = 0.007). Regarding the interaction effect, the CVDG exhibited a significantly longer step time during the verbal fluency and arithmetic DT conditions when compared to their own performance in the simple gait condition (p = 0.037).
Conclusions:
No significant differences between groups were found in both single-task and DTs gait across most of the analyzed parameters. Additionally, DT activities similarly affected the gait parameters of both groups. Although cardiovascular diseases are commonly associated with motor and cognitive declines, DTs did not affect participants with cardiovascular impairment differently.
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