Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Oct;65(10):1093-100.
doi: 10.1093/gerona/glq111. Epub 2010 Jun 25.

Executive function, memory, and gait speed decline in well-functioning older adults

N L Watson  1 , C Rosano, R M Boudreau, E M Simonsick, L Ferrucci, K Sutton-Tyrrell, S E Hardy, H H Atkinson, K Yaffe, S Satterfield, T B Harris, A B Newman; Health ABC Study
Affiliations

Executive function, memory, and gait speed decline in well-functioning older adults

N L Watson et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2010 Oct.

Abstract

Background: In community-dwelling older adults, global cognitive function predicts longitudinal gait speed decline. Few prospective studies have evaluated whether specific executive cognitive deficits in aging may account for gait slowing over time.

Methods: Multiple cognitive tasks were administered at baseline in 909 participants in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study Cognitive Vitality Substudy (mean age 75.2 ± 2.8 years, 50.6% women, 48.4% black). Usual gait speed (m/s) over 20 minutes was assessed at baseline and over a 5-year follow-up.

Results: Poorer performance in each cognitive task was cross-sectionally associated with slower gait independent of demographic and health characteristics. In longitudinal analyses, each 1 SD poorer performance in global function, verbal memory, and executive function was associated with 0.003-0.004 m/s greater gait speed decline per year (p =.03-.05) after adjustment for baseline gait speed, demographic, and health characteristics.

Conclusions: In this well-functioning cohort, several cognitive tasks were associated with gait speed cross-sectionally and predicted longitudinal gait speed decline. These data are consistent with a shared pathology underlying cognitive and motor declines but do not suggest that specific executive cognitive deficits account for slowing of usual gait in aging.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Ble A, Volpato S, Zuliani G, et al. Executive function correlates with walking speed in older persons: the InCHIANTI study. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2005;53(3):410–415. - PubMed
    1. Holtzer R, Verghese J, Xue X, Lipton RB. Cognitive processes related to gait velocity: results from the Einstein Aging Study. Neuropsychology. 2006;20(2):215–223. - PubMed
    1. Rosano C, Simonsick EM, Harris TB, et al. Association between physical and cognitive function in healthy elderly: the health, aging and body composition study. Neuroepidemiology. 2005;24(1–2):8–14. - PubMed
    1. Holtzer R, Friedman R, Lipton RB, Katz M, Xue X, Verghese J. The relationship between specific cognitive functions and falls in aging. Neuropsychology. 2007;21(5):540–548. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Coppin AK, Shumway-Cook A, Saczynski JS, et al. Association of executive function and performance of dual-task physical tests among older adults: analyses from the InChianti study. Age Ageing. 2006;35(6):619–624. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types