Prevalence of Falls, Physical Performance, and Dual-Task Cost While Walking in Older Adults at High Risk of Falling with and Without Cognitive Impairment

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of the Study Population by Cognitive Status

	Cognitively Impaired (n = 209)	Cognitively Unimpaired (n = 461)	P value
Age, mean (SD), years	79.23 (5.89)	77.05 (5.36)	<0.001
Gender, n (%)			<0.001
Male	95 (45)	139 (30)
Female	114 (55)	322 (70)
Race, n (%)			0.53
White	189 (90)	428 (93)
African American	13 (6)	18 (4)
Other	7 (3)	15 (3)
Education, n (%)			0.05
High school diploma or lower	102 (48)	186 (40)
College degree or higher	107 (52)	275 (60)
Resting blood pressure, mean (SD), mmHg
Systolic	133.45 (21.15)	134.55 (18.51)	0.49
Diastolic	74.09 (11.63)	75.61 (10.80)	0.10
Body mass index, mean (SD), kg/m^2	29.00 (6.58)	29.74 (6.14)	0.16
Self-reported falls in previous 12 months, n (%)			<0.001
None	37 (17.7)	141 (30.6)
1	37 (17.7)	192 (41.6)
2	53 (25.4)	97 (21.0)
≥3	82 (39.2)	31 (6.7)
Depression (GDS-15)	3.55 (1.78)	3.64 (1.80)	0.14
Self-reported health status, n (%)			0.001
Poor/very poor	58 (27)	72 (17)
Good/fair	97 (46)	239 (51)
Very good/excellent	54 (27)	150 (32)
Self-reported chronic conditions, n (%)			0.42
None	10 (5)	22 (5)
1	31 (15)	74 (16)
2	47 (22)	128 (28)
≥3	121 (58)	237 (51)
Self-reported medication use, n (%)			0.07
None	35 (17)	104 (22)
1	55 (26)	131 (29)
2	58 (28)	126 (27)
≥3 medications	61 (29)	100 (22)

Abbreviation: GDS-15, Geriatric Depression Scale (15 items).

Table 2 Prevalence of Falls by Cognitive Status

Total Falls	1041
	Cognitively Impaired (n = 209)	Cognitively Unimpaired (n = 461)	P value
Any falls	560 (n = 172)	481 (n = 320)	<0.001
2 or more falls	523 (n = 135)	289 (n = 128)	<0.001

Table 3 Descriptive Statistics on the Study Outcome Measures by Cognitive Status

	Cognitively Impaired (n = 209)	Cognitively Unimpaired (n = 461)	P value	Cohen’s d
Functional reach, cm, mean (SD)	19.43 (5.64)	21.76 (5.17)	<0.001	0.43
Timed Up and Go, sec, mean (SD)	16.34 (6.65)	13.29 (4.14)	<0.001	0.55
Short Physical Performance Battery, points, mean (SD)	7.49 (1.96)	8.73 (1.88)	<0.001	0.65
Single-task walking, sec, mean (SD)	25.73 (7.24)	21.52 (4.78)	<0.001	0.68
Dual-task walking, sec, mean (SD)	29.48 (11.42)	22.97 (6.06)	<0.001	0.71
Dual-task cost, percentage,^a mean (SD)	13.14 (19.67)	6.54 (12.07)	<0.001	0.40

Notes: ^aCalculated as the difference between dual-task and single-task on walking speed performance (in seconds), normalized to single-task gait performance and expressed as a percentage (ie, [dual-task walking − single-task walking/single-task walking] × 100), with a positive value indicating performance decrement (ie, dual-task cost) compared with the single-task performance.