title: Assessment of upper body accelerations in young adults with intellectual disabilities while walking, running, and dual-task running.
abstract: There is an increasing interest about upper body accelerations during locomotion and how they are altered by physical impairments. Recent studies have demonstrated that cognitive impairments affect gait stability in the elderly (i.e., their capacity for smoothing upper body accelerations during walking) but little attention has been paid to young adults with intellectual disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine upright stability in young adults with intellectual disabilities during walking, running, and dual-task running (playing soccer). To this aim a wearable trunk-mounted device that permits on-field assessment was used to quantify trunk acceleration of 18 male teenagers with intellectual disabilities (IDG) and 7 mental-age-matched healthy children (HCG) who participated in the same soccer program. We did not find any significant difference during walking in terms of speed, whereas speed differences were found during running (p=.001). Upper body accelerations were altered in a pathology-specific manner during the dual task: the performance of subjects with autistic disorders was compromised while running and controlling the ball with the feet. Differences in upright locomotor patterns between IDG and HCG emerged during more demanding motor tasks in terms of a loss in the capacity of smoothing accelerations at the trunk level.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Laboratory of Experimental Neurorehabilitation, Fondazione Santa Lucia I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy. Electronic address: m.iosa@hsantalucia.it.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iosa
authors.affiliation: Fondazione Santa Lucia I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Morelli
authors.affiliation: Totti Soccer School, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Enrica
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nisi
authors.affiliation: Totti Soccer School, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sorbara
authors.affiliation: Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Brescia, Italy; Don Gnocchi Foundation I.R.C.C.S., Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Negrini
authors.affiliation: Fondazione Santa Lucia I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gentili
authors.affiliation: Clinical Laboratory of Experimental Neurorehabilitation, Fondazione Santa Lucia I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy; Fondazione Santa Lucia I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paolucci
authors.affiliation: Clinical Laboratory of Experimental Neurorehabilitation, Fondazione Santa Lucia I.R.C.C.S., Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Augusto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fusco
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D004856:Postural Balance; D012016:Reference Values; D012420:Running; D012737:Sex Factors; D012916:Soccer; D016138:Walking; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Accelerometry; Autism disorders; Biomechanics; Down syndrome; Kinematic analysis; Pervasive developmental disorders