Estudo comparativo do desempenho na realização de tarefa dupla entre idosos saudáveis e idosos com doença de Alzheimer

Abstract

With increased life expectancy also increases the number of chronic diseases, and among them has Alzheimer's disease (AD). Early detection of AD is one of the great challenges of our time. The gait assessment associated with another task (motor or cognitive) has aroused the interest of researchers as a possible predictor of the disease. The study aimed to investigate whether there is impairment in the performance of dual tasks in elderly patients with early stage in this study population. This is a case- control, cross-sectional, observational and descriptive. The sample consisted of 28 individuals sampled for convenience in total, and 13 elderly with Alzheimer's disease (AD) at an early stage; and 15 characterized by older people without cognitive impairment. The tests used were the digit span, Stroop test and verbal fluency (animals) and the dual task was the association of verbal fluency test and walk as motor activity. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 23). Inferential statistics were performed to verify the difference (Student t test, test Mann-Whitney) and the relationship between variables (r Pearson correlations and Spearman p). There was a statistically significant difference among the elderly with Alzheimer's and older people without cognitive impairment in terms of cognitive task (verbal fluency test) and dual task (motor and cognitive task). The t test for independent samples indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between the conditions in the motor task distance (MTD) and distance in the dual task (DDT) in the control group [t (27) = 6.04, p = 0.00 , d = 0.90], average speed of the motor task (SMT) and average speed of the dual task (SDT) in the control group [t (27) = 6.04, p = 0.00, d = 0.97] , MTD and DDT in the experimental group [t (27) = 4.56, p = .001, d = 1.39] and SMT and SDT in the experimental group [t (27) = 4.56, p = .001, d = 1.43]. Elderly people with early Alzheimer's had a worse performance both in the dual task as the verbal fluency test when compared to older people without cognitive impairment.