ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Aging
Sec. Interventions in Aging
The Timed Up and Go dual-task test' cognitive and motor outcomes show promising test-retest reliability in older adults with perceived memory impairment
Provisionally accepted
- 1CIRCLE – Complex Intervention Research in Health and Care, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala, Sweden
- 2Hogskolan Dalarna Institutionen for halsa och valfard, Falun, Sweden
- 3Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Geriatrics, Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala, Sweden
- 4Department of Community Medicine and Rehabilitation, Umea Universitet, Umeå, Sweden
- 5CIRCLE – Complex Intervention Research in Health and Care, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
- 6Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Geriatrics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
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Background: It is of utmost importance to identify older adults at risk of cognitive impairment at the earliest possible stage. Previous research supports the potential of investigating step parameters and turn duration during Timed Up and Go (TUG) during single and dual-task (TUGdt) conditions to detect subtle impairment. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the test-retest reliability and measurement error of novel outcomes related to TUG and two TUGdt tests, TUGdt-NA (naming animals) and TUGdt-MB (reciting months in reverse order), in older adults with perceived memory impairment. Methods: Thirty-four participants (18 women, mean age 76) were included and assessed with TUG, TUGdt-NA and TUGdt-MB on two different occasions, 5-10 days apart. Tests were video recorded for data extraction of spatiotemporal step parameters and turn duration. Reliability of motor and cognitive outcomes were analyzed with intraclass correlations (ICC2.1), standard errors of measurement and minimal detectable change (MDC). The proportional measurement error was presented with MDC%. Results: The results showed very good reliability (ICC2.1 ≥0.85) regarding total completion times, although the measurement error and proportional measurement error (MDC%) was higher during TUGdt conditions than TUG. The reliability of cognitive outcomes during TUGdt favored TUGdt-MB (ICC2.1 ≥0.77, MDC% ≤39.8). Step length was the step parameter with highest reliability (ICC2.1 ≥0.86) and lowest proportional measurement error (MDC% ≤21.4) across conditions, whereas turn duration showed good reliability during TUG and TUGdt-MB ( ICC2.1≥0.74, MDC%≤38.9) Conclusion The results support the potential of including TUG and TUGdt outcomes in cognitive risk evaluations among older adults.
Keywords: Dementia, Gait, Mild Cognitive Impairment, motor-cognitive dual-task, Psychometrics, Subjective cognitive decline
Received: 29 Sep 2025; Accepted: 19 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lofgren, Giedraitis, Halvorsen, Rosendahl and Åberg. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Niklas Lofgren
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