Objective: Investigate the effects of a single session of treadmill gait training combined with cognitive tasks on dual-task gait in Parkinson’s disease.

Background: The loss of automaticity in Parkinson’s disease impairs performance of gait with concurrent activities (Dual-task). Considering that treadmill training may automate a better gait pattern than overground gait training, which has been shown by several studies involving simple task situations in Parkinson’s disease, these effects must also be investigated in the studies including dual-task.

Methods: Twenty-two volunteers, aged between 40 and 75 years, in the moderate phase of Parkinson’s disease and able to walk independently, were randomized into two groups: Control (n=11), with only treadmill gait training for 20 minutes; and Experimental (n=11), with treadmill training plus cognitive verbal fluency, memory and spatial planning tasks for 20 minutes. Participants were assessed for kinematic analysis (Qualisys Motion Capture System).

Results: There were no significant differences between groups; however, both exhibited improvements in post-training DT gait spatiotemporal variables. Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures showed a main effect of time in the following spatiotemporal variables: speed (F=26.23; P≤0.001); dominant step length (F=7.48; P=0,013); non-dominant step length (F=14.27; P=0.001); and stride length (F=13.00; P=0.002). Regarding to angular variables, both groups did not exhibit improvements post-training.

Conclusions: Treadmill gait training, although not combined with a cognitive task, resulted in improved spatiotemporal variables during the DT. Thus, it is suggested that treadmill training alone can be used in clinical practice in order to facilitate the gait performance during concomitant tasks.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/can-treadmill-training-facilitate-the-dual-task-gait-in-parkinsons-disease/