Effects of dual task demanding manual dexterity and sit-to-stand in Parkinson disease individuals

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) causes loss of automaticity and impairment in dual task (DT) performance. AIM: To investigate the performance and pattern of prioritization of individuals with PD in motor and cognitive DT. METHOD: An observational, transversal, comparative study assessed 20 individuals with PD between stages 1.5 to 3 of the modified Hoehn and Yahr scale. Performance was assessed during the execution of manual dexterity and sit-to-stand tasks, in a single task or in association with a verbal fluency task. RESULTS: There was a loss of performance in both dual task conditions. The cost of verbal fluency was higher than the cost of manual dexterity function. CONCLUSION: Individuals with PD showed worse DT performance and prioritized the manual dexterity task. There was no prioritization between sit-to-stand and verbal fluency. These findings suggest that the nature of tasks can influence the prioritization of dual tasks.