No abstract

Background Understanding the mechanisms that contribute to walking speed decline can provide needed insight for developing targeted interventions to reduce the rate and likelihood of decline. Objective Examine the association between gait characteristics and walking speed decline in older adults. Methods Participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging aged 60 to 89 were evaluated in the gait laboratory which used a three dimensional motion capture system and force platforms to assess cadence, stride length, stride width, percent of gait cycle in double stance, anterior-posterior mechanical work expenditure (MWE), and medial-lateral MWE. Usual walking speed was assessed over 6 meters at baseline and follow-up. Gait characteristics associated with meaningful decline (decline ≥ 0.05 m/s/y) in walking speed were evaluated by logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, race, height, weight, initial walking speed and follow-up time. Results Among 362 participants, the average age was 72.4 (SD=8.1) years, 51% were female, 27% were black and 23% were identified has having meaningful decline in usual walking speed with an average follow-up time of 3.2 (1.1) years. In the fully adjusted model, faster cadence [ORadj=0.65 95% CI (0.43,0.97)] and longer strides [ORadj=0.87 95% CI (0.83,0.91)] were associated with lower odds of decline. However age [ORadj=1.04 95% CI (0.99,1.10)] was not associated with decline when controlling for gait characteristics and other demographics. Conclusion A sizable proportion of healthy older adults experienced walking speed decline over an average of 3 years. Longer stride and faster cadence were protective against meaningful decline in usual walking speed.

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of sport goggles on visual target detection in female intercollegiate athletes. Participants were randomly divided into three groups that varied in goggle use (G) or no goggle use (NG) over a total of three 1-min trials during a visual target detection task. The NG-NG-NG group did not wear goggles for any of the trials, whereas the NG-G-NG group wore goggles for the second trial only, and the G-NG-G group wore goggles for the first and third trials. The task consisted of illuminated targets arranged in five concentric rings from central to peripheral visual angles. The effects of sport goggles on response time to detect targets were most evident in the peripheral rings. Those who did not wear sport goggles showed improved performance from the first to second trials. This improvement was impaired, however, in those who wore sport goggles. Moreover, there was a reversal of the performance improvements achieved without goggles in those who wore goggles on the third trial. Together, these findings suggest the sport goggles not only impaired the expected initial performance but also impaired visual target detection after performance improvements were seen. These findings suggest sport goggles may impair detection of peripheral visual stimuli in athletes.

No abstract