The Effect of Acute Caffeine Ingestion on Cognitive Dual Task Performance During Assessment of Static and Dynamic Balance in Older Adults (360G-Wellcome-212164_Z_18_Z)

The ergogenic benefit of caffeine for sports performance has been reported extensively in younger adults (4) and recent evidence suggests benefits of acute caffeine ingestion for motor performance (5) and cognition (6) in older adults. Given such components are important mediators of postural control, it is proposed that caffeine may be an important nutritional supplement to improve balance in older adults. Studies examining the effect of caffeine on balance are sparse and focus only on static postural control (7). Such assessments give a limited understanding of balance tasks adopted during the completion of tasks of daily living, where falls are more likely during locomotory tasks requiring dynamic balance (8). Furthermore, individuals must maintain balance whilst completing secondary cognitive tasks such as communicating or crossing a road. Previous work had indicated that that completion of a secondary task can impair (9) or improve postural control but at the expense of the secondary task (10). It is unknown weather caffeine can mediate these detrimental effects. The present study aims to assess the effect of caffeine ingestion on cognitive dual performance during assessments of both static and dynamic balance in older adults.