TEXTING WHILE WALKING INDUCES GAIT PATTERN ALTERATIONS IN HEALTHY OLDER ADULTS

摘要

The use of a mobile phone for texting purposes results in distracted walking which may lead to injuries. Inparticular, texting while walking has been shown to induce significant alterations in gait patterns. Thisstudy aimed to assess whether changes in the main spatio-temporal parameters of gait when simultaneouslyengaged in texting on a smartphone and walking are different in older adults relative to young and middleagedindividuals. A total of 57 participants divided in three groups (19 older adults aged over 65, 19 youngaged 20-40 and 19 middle-aged aged 41-64) were tested in two conditions: walking, and walking whiletexting on a smartphone. Spatio-temporal parameters of gait were assessed using a wearable accelerometerlocated on the lower back. The results show that texting induced similar reduction of gait speed, stridelength and cadence in all groups. Slight (although significant) alterations of stance, swing and doublesupport phases duration were found only for middle-aged participants. Such findings suggest thatmodifications of gait patterns due to texting seem unaffected by age, probably due to different perceptionsof the cognitive complexity of the task and differential prioritization of its motor and cognitive aspects.