The influence of dual-task activities on spatiotemporal gait parameters in patients with cardiovascular diseases.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the influence of dual-task (DT) on the spatiotemporal gait parameters of patients with cardiovascular diseases. Design: This was an observational, cross-sectional, and comparative study. Participants: The study included 28 males, aged between 51 and 77 years, divided into two groups: Cardiovascular Disease Group (CVDG - N = 14) and Control Group (CG - N = 14). Main outcome measures: Participants performed the simple gait task and dual-task activities (including the cognitive and gait tasks) in a motion analysis system. For statistical analysis, it was conducted a mixed analysis of variance (Mixed ANOVA) and for significant main effects (condition or group) or interactions (group × condition) it was performed post-hoc tests with Bonferroni correction. A significance level (alpha) of 0.05 was set. Results: Group comparisons revealed a significant difference solely in step width, where the CVDG showed lower mean values than the CG (p = 0.001). However, DTs similarly affected both groups, resulting in significant reductions in gait speed (p = 0.000), cadence (p = 0.002), step length (p = 0.000), and stride time (p = 0.007). Regarding the interaction effect, the CVDG exhibited a significantly longer step time during the verbal fluency and arithmetic DT conditions when compared to their own performance in the simple gait condition (p = 0.037). Conclusions: No significant differences between groups were found in both single-task and DTs gait across most of the analyzed parameters. Additionally, DT activities similarly affected the gait parameters of both groups. Although cardiovascular diseases are commonly associated with motor and cognitive declines, DTs did not affect participants with cardiovascular impairment differently.