TY - JOUR
T1 - A common cognitive profile in elderly fallers and in patients with Parkinson's disease
T2 - The prominence of impaired executive function and attention
AU - Hausdorff, Jeffrey M.
AU - Doniger, Glen M.
AU - Springer, Shmuel
AU - Yogev, Galit
AU - Giladi, Nir
AU - Simon, Ely S.
N1 - Funding Information:
Received 4 August 2005; accepted 20 October 2005. This work was supported in part by grants from the NIA, NICHD, NCRR, the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, and the National Parkinson Foundation. The authors thank Prof. David Zucker for statistical support and Talia Herman and Leor Gruendlinger for invaluable assistance. Address correspondence to Jeffrey M. Hausdorff, PhD, Harvard Medical School Division on Aging, 643 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
PY - 2006/12/1
Y1 - 2006/12/1
N2 - The present study examined the cognitive profile of elderly fallers relative to healthy elderly controls and patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), a positive-control group, using a computerized battery. Fallers performed more poorly than controls on executive function, attention, and motor skills, but performed comparably on memory, information processing and the Mini-Mental State Examination. A similar profile was evident for PD patients. However, unlike PD patients, fallers were abnormally inconsistent in their reaction times. These findings indicate that elderly fallers may have a unique cognitive processing deficit (i.e., variability of response timing) and underscore the importance of executive function and attention as potential targets for fall risk screening and interventions.
AB - The present study examined the cognitive profile of elderly fallers relative to healthy elderly controls and patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), a positive-control group, using a computerized battery. Fallers performed more poorly than controls on executive function, attention, and motor skills, but performed comparably on memory, information processing and the Mini-Mental State Examination. A similar profile was evident for PD patients. However, unlike PD patients, fallers were abnormally inconsistent in their reaction times. These findings indicate that elderly fallers may have a unique cognitive processing deficit (i.e., variability of response timing) and underscore the importance of executive function and attention as potential targets for fall risk screening and interventions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33748859483&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/03610730600875817
DO - 10.1080/03610730600875817
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C2 - 16982571
AN - SCOPUS:33748859483
SN - 0361-073X
VL - 32
SP - 411
EP - 429
JO - Experimental Aging Research
JF - Experimental Aging Research
IS - 4
ER -