Abstract
Objective
To investigate whether varying practice context during gait training could reduce
context-dependency and facilitate transfer of improved gait performance to a new context.
Design
A single-blind, parallel-group randomized controlled trial.
Setting
Medical university rehabilitation settings.
Participants
Forty-nine participants with PD were recruited and randomized into the constant (CONS)
or varied (VARI) context group.
Interventions
All participants received 12 sessions of treadmill and over-ground gait training.
The CONS group was trained in a constant environmental context throughout the study,
while the VARI group received training in 2 different contexts in an alternating order.
Main Outcome Measures
The primary outcome was gait performance, including velocity, cadence, and stride
length. The participants were assessed in the original training context as well as
in a novel context at post-test to determine the influence of changed environmental
context on gait performance.
Results
While both groups improved significantly after training, the CONS group showed greater
improvement in stride length than the VARI group when assessed in the original practice
context. However, the CONS group showed a decreased velocity and stride length in
the novel context, while the VARI group maintained their performance.
Conclusions
Varying practice context could facilitate transfer of improved gait performance to
a novel context.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Accepted:
June 13,
2022
Received in revised form:
April 6,
2022
Received:
September 16,
2021
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofFootnotes
This study was conducted at School and Graduate Institute of Physical therapy, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University.
The Institutional Review Board of National Taiwan University Hospital approved the study protocol.
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan [MOST 106-2314-B-002-044-MY3, MOST 109-2314-B-002-128-, and MOST 110-2314-B-002-048-MY3].
Conflicts of interests: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Clinical registration: NCT03368443 (ClinicalTrials.gov)
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine.
