老年人步态与认知功能障碍的新进展

步态是一个复杂的运动任务，由大脑的不同区域共同控制。流行病学研究表明老年人步态与认知功能之间有密切关系。老年人步态障碍增加了患有认知功能障碍的风险，与正常健康的老年人相比，患有认知功能障碍的老年人更易表现为步态障碍且更易跌倒。认知和步态可能发生在大脑的同一个区域，两者可能存在双向关系，更好的整体步态与更好的整体认知功能具有一定的相关性。近年来国外许多研究表明步速和跨步时间变化（STV）是认知功能障碍的预测因素，国内相关的研究仍甚少。本文将步速和STV与认知功能障碍研究进展予以综述，旨在提高临床医师的意识，根据老年人的步态进行神经心理学测试，更早地发现认知功能障碍。

New progress of gait and cognitive impairment in the elderly

Gait is a complicated motor task controlled by different areas of the brain. Epidemiological studies show that gait is closely associated with cognitive function in the elderly. Older adults with gait impairment are of higher risk for developing cognitive impairments. Compared with normal healthy old people, those with cognitive impairment show more preference to have gait impairments, and are more prone to falling. Cognition and gait, which may have a mutual relationship, may occur in the same area of the brain. So, better overall gait is related to better overall cognitive function. In recent years, many abroad researches demonstrated that stride speed and stride-to-stride variability of stride time (STV) are predictors of cognitive impairment. However, there are few such researches in China. This article reviewed the new progress in the studies concerning walking speed and STV with cognitive impairment, and aimed at raising awareness of clinicians on this subject. We need to conduct neuropsychological tests based on the elderly gait in order to detect cognitive impairment as early as possible.