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. 2023 Jul 17:17:e20220070.
doi: 10.1590/1980-5764-DN-2022-0070. eCollection 2023.

Floor Maze Test is capable of differentiating spatial navigation between frail and pre-frail institutionalized older persons

Eric Hudson Evangelista E Souza  1 , Luana Lemos Leão  1 , Alfredo Maurício Batista de Paula  1 , Vinícius Dias Rodrigues  1 , Andréa Camaz Deslandes  2 , Jerson Laks  2 , Renato Sobral Monteiro  1   3
Affiliations

Floor Maze Test is capable of differentiating spatial navigation between frail and pre-frail institutionalized older persons

Eric Hudson Evangelista E Souza et al. Dement Neuropsychol. .

Abstract
in English, Portuguese

Investigation of the association between physical frailty and cognitive performance through spatial navigation is important to enable the identification of individuals with cognitive impairment and physical comorbidity.

Objective: To analyze the association between spatial navigation and frailty in frail and pre-frail institutionalized older adults.

Methods: Forty older people of both sexes, aged 60 years or over, residing in four Brazilian Long-Term Care Facilities (LTCFs) participated in this study. The following tests were applied: Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), 2.44m Timed Up and Go, Floor Maze Test (FMT), and Fried's frailty criteria. For data analysis, the Mann-Whitney and independent t-tests were used to compare the groups (frail x pre-frail), principal component analysis was used to explore the main variables related to the data variance, and binary logistic regression to estimate associations.

Results: There was a significant difference in performance in the FMT immediate maze time (IMT) (p=0.02) and in the delayed maze time (DMT) (p=0.009) between the pre-frail and frail older adults. An association between FMT DMT performance and frailty was found, showing that older people with shorter times on the DMT (better performance) had approximately four times the chance of not being frail (odds ratio - OR=4.219, 95% confidence interval - 95%CI 1.084-16.426, p=0.038).

Conclusion: Frailty is associated with impaired spatial navigation ability in institutionalized older adults, regardless of gait speed performance.

A investigação da associação entre fragilidade física e desempenho cognitivo por meio da navegação espacial é importante para possibilitar a identificação de indivíduos com déficit cognitivo e comorbidade física.

Objetivo: Analisar a associação entre navegação espacial e fragilidade em idosos institucionalizados frágeis e pré-frágeis.

Métodos: Participaram deste estudo 40 idosos de ambos os sexos, com idade igual ou superior a 60 anos, residentes em quatro instituições de longa permanência (ILPI) brasileiras. Foram aplicados os seguintes testes: Miniexame do Estado Mental (MEEM), 2,44m Timed Up and Go, Floor Maze Test (FMT) e os critérios de fragilidade de Fried. Para a análise dos dados, foram utilizados os testes t independente e de Mann-Whitney para comparar os grupos (frágeis x pré-frágeis), foi feita análise de componentes principais para explorar as principais variáveis relacionadas à variância dos dados e regressão logística binária para estimar associações.

Resultados: Houve diferença significativa no desempenho do FMT no tempo imediato do labirinto (TIL) (p=0,02) e no tempo posterior do labirinto (TPL) (p=0,009) entre os idosos pré-frágeis e frágeis. Encontrou-se associação entre o desempenho no FMT TPL e fragilidade, mostrando que idosos com menor tempo de TPL (melhor desempenho) tiveram aproximadamente quatro vezes mais chance de não serem frágeis (odds ratio – OR=4,219, intervalo de confiança de 95% – IC95% 1,084–16,426, p=0,038).

Conclusão: A fragilidade está associada à habilidade de navegação espacial prejudicada em idosos institucionalizados, independentemente do desempenho da velocidade da marcha.

Keywords: Cognitive Aging; Frailty; Functional Residual Capacity; Spatial Navigation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Performance on immediate maze time and delayed maze time between groups. (A) Values of immediate maze time and (B) values of delayed maze time.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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