Shivani Sagar, Shefali Walia
Background and Introduction: Mobility and cognition assessments are performed in both clinical and basic research settings on a daily basis. During a 24-hrs time span our physiology and physical performance undergo radical changes as we are influenced by the circadian rhythm. The time-of-day interaction on mobility and cognition is unknown in elderly. The aim of this study was to investigate the time-of-day effect on community dwelling elderly population.
Methods: Mobility and Cognition were assessed in 60 elderly using the four outcome measures, including; Modified Mini Mental Status Examination, Berg Balance Scale, Four Square Step Test and Timed Up and Go Test. The participants underwent the same test at three different timings of the day (9:00 am, 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm) and a comparison was done among the three scores of each outcome measure.
Results: An overall significant time-of-day (between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.) effect was observed for mental status, balance, agility and gait. The variation among the scores was mostly pronounced from midday (1:00 p.m.) toward the evening (5 p.m.) in all four outcome measures. Specifically between 1:00 p.m. and 5 p.m. more significant difference between the mean values are observed as compared to that between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates that time-of-day influences mobility and cognition in community dwelling elderly population. These findings have important scientific and clinical relevance, as they imply that time-of-day should be a controlled factor when assessing and also when treating cognition, balance, agility and gait.
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