Gait Balance Control Deficiency in Veterans with Chronic Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Loading...
Date
2019
Authors
Enayati, Ravahn H.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
While mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), or concussion, is typically associated with athletics, head trauma is widespread in the battlefield and combat training. Individuals with acute mTBI typically demonstrate many physiological and cognitive symptoms, including imbalance during walking. Many Veterans with mTBI were reported to continue suffering chronically from subjective symptoms. It is reasonable to expect they may also continue to exhibit impairment in gait balance control, especially when attention is divided. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine gait imbalance in Veterans with chronic mTBI. Eight healthy Veterans (1F; 33.93.8 years old) and eight Veteran subjects diagnosed with chronic mTBI (1F; 32.36.5 years old) had their gait balance examined while walking barefoot in two conditions. The first condition required each Veteran walking with an undivided attention (single-task, ST). The second condition had each subject concurrently completing a continuous auditory Stroop test, which consisted of the individual listening to different auditory stimuli and attempting to correctly identify the pitch while walking (dual-task, DT). A 10-camera motion analysis system was used to collect whole body movement during both walking conditions. Mediolateral (ML) center of mass (COM) displacement as well as peak mediolateral and anterior-posterior COM velocities were recorded during each gait cycle. Compared to healthy controls, Veterans with chronic mTBI symptoms walked with a significantly greater ML COM displacement in both ST and DT conditions. Compared to the ST condition, healthy individuals demonstrated a slower ML COM sway velocity when faced with the DT situation, while individuals with chronic symptoms showed an increase in ML COM velocity. These results indicate that Veteran subjects with chronic mTBI demonstrated gait imbalances compared to a healthy Veteran cohort. This information can be used to understand the physiological effects of chronic mTBI and to develop policy for the protection of mental health of military personnel.
Description
31 pages
Keywords
Human Physiology, Veterans, mTBI, Chronic mTBI, Gait Balance, Brain Injury