PHOENIX — Dual-task walking (DTW) can be a complex process for multiple sclerosis patients. A new study looks at what functions it requires.
“Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating neurological disease associated with a variety of psychological, cognitive, and motoric symptoms,” wrote researchers from Arizona State University, the Phoenix VAMC and other academic institutions. “Walking is among the most important functions compromised by MS. Dual-task walking (DTW), an everyday activity in which people walk and engage in a concurrent, discrete task, has been assessed in MS, but little is known about how it relates to other MS symptoms.”
The report in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society added, “Self-awareness theory suggests that DTW may be a function of the interactions among psychological, cognitive, and motor processes.”
Researchers assessed cognitive testing, self-report assessments for depression and falls self-efficacy (FSE), as well as walk evaluations [DTW and single-task walk (STW)] in 73 patients with MS in a clinical-care setting. “Specifically, we assessed whether psychological factors (depression and FSE) that alter subjective evaluations regarding one’s abilities would moderate the relationships between physical and cognitive abilities and DTW performance,” the authors explained.
Results indicated that DTW speed is related to diverse physical and cognitive predictors. “In support of self-awareness theory, FSE moderated the relationship between STW and DTW speeds such that lower FSE attenuated the strength of the relationship between them. DTW costs—the change in speed normalized by STW speed—did not relate to cognitive and motor predictors,” researchers pointed out. “DTW costs did relate to depressive symptoms, and depressive symptoms moderated the effect of information processing on DTW costs.”
The authors concluded that “an interplay of physical ability and psychological factors—like depression and FSE—may enhance understanding of walking performance under complex, real-world, DTW contexts.”
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Van Liew C, Gudesblatt M, Covey TJ, Wilken J, Golan D, Zarif M, Bumstead B, Buhse M, Ofori E, Peterson D. The moderating roles of self-efficacy and depression in dual-task walking in multiple sclerosis: A test of self-awareness theory. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2022 Apr 25:1-9. doi: 10.1017/S1355617722000200. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35465869.
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