Characteristics of tasks utilized for evaluation of judgment errors in the elderly

Abstract

[Purpose] The present study compared assessments utilized to evaluate judgment errors in the elderly. [Subjects and Methods] A total of 94 community-dwelling elderly participants in an examination of physical fitness for health promotion and health guidance in a rural area in Japan were included. Spatially and temporally predictive tasks were used to evaluate judgment errors. Distances measured on the Functional Reach and upward reaching tests were used to assess spatial prediction, and times measured on the Timed Up and Go test and Standardized Walking Obstacle Course were used to assess temporal prediction. Differences between the self-predicted values and actual results were deemed judgment errors. [Results] Significant differences were observed between self-predicted abilities and the patients’ performances. Participants underestimated their abilities in spatially predictive tasks and overestimated them in temporally predictive tasks. On comparing the four tasks, there were significant differences in judgment error ratios between them. Statistical analysis indicated a significant difference in the judgment error ratio for the Standardized Walking Obstacle Course correlated with a history of falls. [Conclusion] Judgment errors were identified using both spatially and temporally predictive tasks. A temporally predictive task like the Standardized Walking Obstacle Course might better evaluate judgment errors in the elderly.

Do Older People Accurately Estimate the Length of Their First Step during Gait Initiation?

“…Moreover, compatible findings have emerged in other procedures, such as mental chronometry (TUG: Beauchet et al, 2010;Fujimoto et al, 2015), the Standardized Walking Obstacle Course (Sakamoto & Ohashi, 2016), or the Step-over test (Sakurai et al, 2013).…”

“…Therefore, the failure to update the internal model of action seems to be an insufficient explanation for the entire set of findings. Task difficulty has been proposed to explain the discrepancy (Sakamoto & Ohashi, 2016), but a possible link to internal models of action must be strengthened. The transactional model of coping (Lazarus, 1991) seems powerful on that point, assuming its relevance in motor imagery.…”

“…Overestimation predominates when older adults must estimate whether they can stand on an inclined plane (Lafargue et al, 2013) or must estimate their maximal forward reach without losing balance (Liu-Ambrose, Ahamed, Graf, Feldman, & Robinovitch, 2008;Okimoto, Toriyama, Deie, & Maejima, 2017;Robinovitch & Cronin, 1999). There is also converging evidence for the overestimation of actions that fully or partly relate to walking speed; this effect is often limited to very old adults (Beauchet et al, 2010;Bridenbaugh, Beauchet, Annweiler, Allali, Herrmann, & Kressig, 2013;Fujimoto et al, 2015;Naveteur, Delzenne, Sockeel, Watelain, & Dupuy, 2013;Sakamoto & Ohashi, 2016, 2017Sakurai et al, 2017b;Schott, 2012;Schott & Munzert, 2007;Zivotofsky, Eldror, Mandel, & Rosenbloom, 2012). Misjudgment seems to increase in older adults who have an inactive life style (Sakurai et al, 2014), an increased RoF (Beauchet et al, 2010;Butler, Lord, Taylor, & Fitzpatrick, 2014;Sakurai et al, 2013), or a fear of falling (Sakurai et al, 2017b).…”

“…Overall, overestimation as reported above is the most frequent conclusion based on the whole sample of older adults, or on subgroups, but underestimation is also sometimes observed. For instance, this was the case for both the ability to walk and walking-time estimates, as tested on a small path width (Kluft, van Dieen, & Pijnappels, 2017b;Personnier, Kubicki, Laroche, & Papaxanthis, 2010), and mixed findings can be found in other tasks, such as some step-over studies (Sakurai et al, 2013(Sakurai et al, , 2014(Sakurai et al, , 2016(Sakurai et al, , 2017a or in functional reaching tests (Sakamoto & Ohashi, 2016). One way to understand the whole set of findings despite the discrepancies is to consider the performance in terms of precision (unsigned difference).…”

The relationship between physical function in the elderly and judgment error in walking speed

“…That is, “judgment error” tends to be observed in elderly individuals. We have previously studied judgment error with regard to balance function among community-dwelling elderly individuals using spatially and temporally predictive tasks 13 ) . This previous study demonstrated that elderly individuals underestimate their abilities in spatially predictive tasks, such as the Functional Reach Test (FR) 14 ) and upward reaching task, and overestimate their abilities in temporally predictive tasks, such as the Timed Up and Go test (TUG) 15 ) and the Standardized Walking Obstacle Course (SWOC) 16 ) .…”