WALKING MEDITATION EFFECTS ON DUAL-TASK WALKING PERFORMANCEIN ELDERLY

Abstract

Walking meditation is a mind-body practice combining walking slowly simultaneously with meditation, which can be described as dual-task walking. However, the training effect of walking meditation on dual-task walking performance has yet to be proven. Besides, a dual-task walking is necessary for balance in the daily life of elderly people. Thus, this study aimed to investigate whether walking meditation training can improve dual-task walking performance among elderly people. The methodology included 48 elderly volunteers aged 65.13±0.35 years participated in the study. They were matched by gender and education level block and randomized into control group (CG, n = 24) and walking meditation group (WMG, n = 24). Both groups engaged in practice 30 min/day, three days/week for a total of six weeks. CG received walking exercise with preferred speed, while WMG received walking meditation training. Before and after training, four outcomes were identified: (1) single-task walking time (STT); (2) dual-task walking time (DTT); (3) dual-task cost (DTC); and (4)correct answers of subtraction during dual-task walking (CAS). The training effect, time effect, and training x time interaction were analyzed by two-way ANOVA mixed model and post-hoc tested with Bonferroni. The results were the mixed model ANOVA analysis revealed significant training effect on CAS (p<0.05) and the significant effects of time and training x time interaction on all studied outcomes (p<0.01). After training, the WMG demonstrated significant improvement in all outcomes compared with before training (p < 0.001), and also showed shorter DTT (p=0.049) and higher CAS (p=0.002) than the CG. Meanwhile, the CG only presented improvements of STT (p<0.05) and CAS (p<0.001) compared to the baseline. In conclusion, the results demonstrated walking meditation training was able to improve dual-task walking performance of the elderly participants better than preferred-speed walking exercise significantly. Therefore, walking meditation training protocol in this study can be applied as an alternative exercise to promote dual-task walking performance for elderly people.

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