Educational Articles
Study Finds Multitasking May Reduce Fall Risk
Most daily activities require the use of multitasking. For example, crossing a street while observing traffic flow or thinking about the shopping list while carrying a cup of tea from one room to another.
A study investigated whether healthy older adults benefit from interventions in motor-cognitive multitask situations and which specific aspects of the intervention contribute to reduced falls.
One typical finding is that under certain multitask conditions, postural sway decreases and stability increases when combining a standing/walking task with a visual cognitive task. Other findings of the review are that balance performance is improved in the most challenging multitasking situations.
So, what does this mean? It may be extremely beneficial to add in a cognitive task to your physical activity. So when out on your daily walk or completing an exercise routine, try some of the following:
- Visualize a familiar place in detail and describe it to yourself
- Observe and recite everything you see that starts with a particular letter or color
- Play a category game, i.e. naming as many fruits or flowers as you can without repeating or as many nouns that start with the letter A.
The above cognitive tasks can be incorporated into your daily routine too, for example:
- Taking a shower
- Standing at the kitchen counter while preparing a meal
- Folding laundry
- Cleaning, sweeping, or vacuuming
Caution: Older adults with a history of falls performed more inefficient in multitask situations, indicating that frequent fallers might have problems shifting attention in multitask situations.
For more information about outpatient or inpatient rehabilitation:
Angella Niblett, PTA, Regional Director of Rehabilitation
info@dovehealthcare.com
715-723-9348, ext 1250
