Untitled

Abstract

Background: In people with Parkinson's disease (PD), dual tasking is difficult because of the impaired motor functions of the basal ganglia. It causes postural instability, reduction in gait speed, decreased stride length, increased festination and freezing. So it can also influence performance on stair ambulation. Objective: To study the effect of dual tasks on stair descent. Methods: 30 subjects were selected from various hospitals in Delhi. After taking the informed consent, the subjects were made to descend down the stairs under two conditions: stair descent only and stairs descent with secondary cognitive task. The time taken in both the activities was recorded along with the scores on Observational Stair Parameter Scoring System (OSPS). Results: Mean Time taken by the subjects was 10.637.199 seconds in stair descent only and 24.5715.076 seconds in stair descent with secondary cognitive task. And mean value of the OSPS score was 3.601.632 in stair descent only and 5.601.522 in stair descent with secondary cogn itive task.