Effects of Neurocognitive Multitask Activities on a Novel Lower Extremity Functional Performance Test.

Objective: To examine the effects of incorporating (1) a neurocognitive reactive component and (2) a neurocognitive multitask component on performance degradation of a single-limb hop functional performance test.

Design: Randomized within-subject design of 32 healthy young adults.

Methods: Participants performed 3 randomly assigned variations of the single-limb T-Drill Hop Test (TDHT). The time to complete each test was recorded. The reactive TDHT (R-TDHT) consisted of the TDHT with a flashing light, indicating the "T" intersection hop direction. The neurocognitive reactive-recall TDHT (RR-TDHT) incorporated the R-TDHT and required participants to observe 5 flashing light colors. Participants then recalled the colors in order at test completion. Each test was performed on the dominant and nondominant lower extremities in a randomly assigned order. Within-group differences in completion time between tests were calculated using a test by limb analysis of variance.

Results: Test complexity prompted similar completion time changes between the limbs (P = .718, ηp2=.011). The R-TDHT (P = .001, d = .12) and RR-TDHT (P < .001, d = 0.24) completion times were significantly longer than the TDHT, and the RR-TDHT completion time was significantly longer (P < .001, d = 0.11) than the R-TDHT. The completion time differences between TDHT and R-TDHT and between R-TDHT and RR-TDHT were statistically identical (P = .770, d = 0.05). There was no statistically significant completion time difference between the dominant and nondominant limbs (P = .420, d = 0.06).

Conclusion: The inclusion of a neurocognitive reactive activity and a multitask neurocognitive reactive-recall activity to a functional performance test significantly increased the test completion time compared with the functional performance test alone. The addition of a neurocognitive reactive component or a multitask neurocognitive reactive-recall component to the TDHT provides an effective means of improving the ecological validity of the current lower extremity functional performance test.