Cross-Sectional Analysis of The Correlation of Temporal-Spatial Parameters of Walking and The Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (moca) In Older Adults

There is growing evidence that gait and cognition are related in older adults. The purpose of this study was to determine if there are correlations between step length and the coefficient of step length and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores. Methods: The sample included 115 adults (≥ 60 years) of both sexes from Slovenia. The MoCA was used to assess cognitive abilities. We used the OptoGait optical system to measure spatio-temporal gait parameters. Due to the abnormal distributions of the analyzed parameters, we examined the differences between simple and complex walking conditions using the Wilcoxon test and the differences between groups according to the MoCA results using the Mann-Whitney U test. The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlation between the MoCA results and the spatio-temporal gait parameters. Results: We identified a statistically significant deterioration in step length and the coefficient of step length under complex walking conditions compared to simple walking conditions (p < 0.05). A statistically significant difference between groups could not be confirmed. The Spearman correlation coefficient could only confirm a statistically significant correlation between the MoCA results and the coefficient of variance of step length (R2 = 0,048; p = 0.032).