Exploring the feasibility of group musical dual-task training in community-dwelling older adults who have concerns about falls

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and limited efficacy of Group Musical Dual-Task Training (G-MDTT) for community-dwelling older adults who had concerns about falls. G-MDTT asked the participants to practice performing two music-related tasks at the same time and was designed to reduce fall risk factors including impairment of executive function, dual-task cost, and balance, and concerns about falls. Six participants with a mean age of 79 volunteered for the study. They were requested to attend a 40-minute group session, two times a week, across one month, for a total of eight sessions. Overall results support the feasibility of G-MDTT to community-dwelling older adults who have concerns about falls and revealed the potential of G-MDTT to reduce the dual-task cost on walking speed in task-specific trained tasks such as “Subtraction 3” task and “Auditory Stroop” task, with some modifications. Recommendations for modifications were discussed and included in the G-MDTT Intervention Manual for clinical application.