Kinematic analysis of normal and adaptive gait of Parkinson's disease patients and healthy elderly: Effect of the auditory cue

• Grant number: 11/01723-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2011
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physical Education
• Principal Investigator: Lilian Teresa Bucken Gobbi
• Grantee: Priscila Matias Formaggio
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Disorders in gait are identified in Parkinson's disease patients. As a result, the capacity of walking independently and the interaction with the environment can be impairment. So, the auditory cues have been utilized as a non- pharmacological treatment to improve the locomotor impairment of the PD patients. However, these effects were observed in the regular lands and it's not known the effects of auditory cues in gait during avoidance obstacles, that could be more threaten for these patients. Yet, few studies in the literature compare the Parkinson's disease patients with the older adults during the locomotor tasks and obstacle avoidance in association with the effects of auditory cues. The aim of the study is to compare the effects of the auditory cues in the gait and during obstacle avoidance in PD patients and older adults. 30 subjects distributed in two groups (Group 1 - 15, Parkinson's disease patients; Group 2 - 15, healthy older adults) are going to participate of this study. After the participation approval, the assessment of clinical condition will be done by a physician. So, to investigate the locomotor pattern, it will be done a kinematic analysis. The experimental task is to walk on 8 m pathway and 18 trials will be done (6 for the free gait and 12 for adaptive gait). For the adaptive gait, two different obstacle heights will be manipulated (high obstacle at half of knee height; low obstacle at ankle height). In order to verify possible differences between the groups and the experimental condition, multivariance tests will be used with a significance level of 0.05