Prevalence and magnitude of perceived dual-task difficulties in people with multiple sclerosis: an international study.
cross_sectional · Level IV
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40921319.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1016/j.apmr.2025.08.017.
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Abstract
To investigate the prevalence and magnitude of dual-task (DT) difficulties and the discriminative ability of three questionnaires evaluating perceived DT difficulties: the Dual-Tasking Questionnaire (DTQ), Dual-Task Screening-List (DTSL), and Dual-Task-Impact on Daily-life Activities Questionnaire (DIDA-Q). Multicenter, cross-sectional study SETTING: Persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) and healthy controls (HC) were recruited from 7 multiple sclerosis centers across 6 countries (Belgium, Chile, Italy, Israel, Spain, and Turkey). A total of 540 participants: 175 with mild disability (mean EDSS: 2.1, mean age: 42.9), 181 with moderate-to-severe disability (mean EDSS: 5.3, mean age: 51.9), and 184 HC (mean age: 44.8). Not applicable MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The cut-off scores of the DTQ, DTSL, and DIDA-Q and prevalence of DT difficulties were calculated. The effect size (ES) was calculated to determine the magnitude of the differences between groups (pwMS vs HC). The discriminative properties were identified by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Cut-off values were estimated as the mean survey score plus two standard deviations of the HC group. Prevalence ranged from 49-87% in the moderate-to-severe disability and 25-45% in the mild disability group. The cut-off scores were 45/100 for DTQ, 25/100 for DTSL, and 14/76 for DIDA-Q. The DTQ (ES:0.61), DTSL (ES:0.73), and DIDA-Q (ES:0.80) demonstrated discriminative ability with a moderate-to-large ES, showing greater perceived DT difficulties in pwMS compared to HC. The DIDA-Q had the largest AUC (0.904) compared to DTSL (0.866), and DTQ (0.802). DT difficulties were already perceived in almost half of the mildly disabled patients and increased with disability severity. The DTQ, DTSL, and DIDA-Q show discriminative ability, with the highest AUC and ES observed in DIDA-Q. The DTQ, DTSL, and DIDA-Q can clearly be used in pwMS for clinical and research purposes.