Table 2.
Mobility Tests Appraised to Evaluate Motor-cognitive Interaction in Aging
| Measure | Description | Prespecified Criteria Fulfilled | Advantages | Key Limitations | Clinical Significance of Change | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Gait speed | Individuals walk a measured distance while being timed (distance/ time), can be evaluated in normal and fast pace | Criteria: 1–6 | Validated, easy to perform, robust predictors of cognitive and motor decline and health outcomes including falls and mortality | Influenced by non CNS factors. May have ceiling effect in high functional people |
Minimum significant change: 5cm/sec (121). Clinical significant change: 10 cm/sec | Included in core and minimum battery |
| 2. Dual-Task Gait | Motor-divided attention task that requires individuals to walk while doing a cognitively demanding task | Criteria: 1–6 | Isolates cognitive control from other determinants of gait, unmasks latent gait disturbances, possible to adapt difficulty levels of the gait and/ or cognitive task, ceiling effect | No consensus on which cognitive task to use; role of task prioritization needs to be determined | Not defined yet | Included in core and minimum battery |
| 3. Gait Variability | The amount of stride-to-stride fluctuation in temporal and spatial parameters of gait | Criteria: 1–5 | Requires instrumented methods | Minimum significant change: stance time and swing time SD = 0.01 s; step length SD = 0.25 cm (122) | Included in core battery; missing criteria 6 | |
| 4. Timed Up & Go (TUG) | Seated on a chair individuals are asked to rise, walk 3m, turn around return to a seated position | Criteria: 1, 3–6 | Provides info about rising, turning and transferring. Not sensitive to dual task interference | Floor effect, difficult to separate out components for biological studies. | >13.5 s high risk of falls (61). Clinical change ~2 s (1.5 SD of normative data). | Included in core battery; missing criteria 2 |
| 5. Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) | Assesses lower extremity functioning in older persons. Includes: repeated chair stands, balance tests, and a short walk | Criteria: 1, 3–6 | Good composite measure. Correlates with cognitive test (MMSE, Digit Symbol Substitution (66), TMT B-A (67)) and with cognitive decline (68) | Ceiling effect | Clinical Significant change: 1.0 (123) | Included in core battery; missing criteria 2 |
| 6. Berg Balance Scale (BBS) | Evaluates functional balance performance | Criteria: 3–5 | Correlates with TMT B (71). Sensitive to exercise intervention (124) | Ceiling effect, weak correlation with cognitive measures, and expertise required | Minimum clinical significance change depends on participant’s baseline score: 0–24 = 5 pts; 25–34 = 7 pts; 35–44 = 5 pts; 45–56 = 4 pts (125) | Not included; missing criteria 1,2, 6 |
| 7. Five-Times- Sit-to-Stand (FTSS) | Participants need to perform five complete sit-to-stand movements as fast as possible without using arms to rise from a chair | Criteria: 1, 3–6 | Easy to perform. Sensitive to global cognitive impairment and mobility decline | Ceiling effect | >15–20 seconds to complete five movements may indicate global cognitive impairment | Not included; part of SPPB. |
Note: CNS = Central nervous system; SD = Standard deviation.