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BACKGROUND: Gait is thought to have a cognitive component, but the current evidence in healthy elderly is mixed. We studied the association between multiple gait and cognitive measures in a cohort of older people. METHODS: One hundred and seventy-eight cognitively healthy participants from the Whitehall II Imaging Sub-study had a detailed clinical and neuropsychological assessment, as well as an MRI scan. Spatiotemporal and variability gait measures were derived from two 10 m walks at self-selected speed. We did a linear regression analysis, entering potential confounders with backwards elimination of variables with p ≥ 0.1. The remaining variables were then entered into a second regression before doing a stepwise analysis of cognitive measures, entering variables with p  0.05). CONCLUSIONS: No strong relationship between gait and non-motor cognition was observed in a cognitively healthy, high functioning sample of elderly. Nevertheless, we found some relationships with spatial, but not temporal gait which warrant further investigation. WMH made no independent contributionto gait.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.gaitpost.2018.07.178

Type

Journal article

Journal

Gait Posture

Publication Date

09/2018

Volume

65

Pages

240 - 245

Keywords

Cognition, Gait, Healthy elderly, Older adults, Walking, Aged, Cognition, Cohort Studies, Female, Gait, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Prospective Studies, Walking, Walking Speed