Texting While Walking Not Such A Good Idea

New York, 30 Jan (TAG) – It's known that texting or talking on mobile phone while walking could be dangerous. A new study published last week has found that doing both at the same time often interferes with memory and disrupts your gait to such a degree that it can cause an accident.

Scientists at Stony Brook University in New York found that using a cell phone to talk or text while walking can slow a person's speed of walking by 16 per cent and disrupt his or her gait by 61 per cent.

The study is the first to focus on the basic mechanics of putting one foot in front of the other while using a cell phone, as opposed to research on unexpected physical dangers, such as walking into a car or down a manhole.

Scientists studied 33 men and women in their 20s, all of whom reported owning and using a cell phone and were familiar with texting.

To assess their walking abilities, participants completed a baseline test. Each participant was shown a target on the floor. Then, by obstructing vision of the target and floor, they were instructed to walk at a reasonable pace to the target and stop.

They repeated this task three times. After each walk, the amount of time it took and the position where each participant stopped was measured by the researchers.

The participants then returned one week later. With their vision obstructed (again), except for the ability to see a cell phone, one-third completed the exact same task; one-third completed the task while talking on a cell phone; and one-third completed the task while texting.

"We were surprised to find that talking and texting on a cell phone were so disruptive to one's gait and memory recall of the target location," says Eric M. Lamberg, co-author of the study.

Findings revealed that walking speed of participants was 33 per cent less while texting and 16 per cent less while talking on their cell phone. Texting also resulted in a 61 per cent increase in lateral (side-to-side) deviation while walking, which added to total travel distance, according to the researchers.

"They were asked to walk a straight line to a specific area. They thought they were doing a wonderful job getting there. In fact, they weren't able to get there," another co-author Lisa Muratori said. "It's quite surprising how far off they were, especially when they were texting."

Although the researchers themselves described the study as preliminary, they noted that the degree to which cell phone use alters gait in a simple, flat 10-yard path "may have significant real-world repercussions."

Lamberg adds that the significant reductions in velocity and difficulty maintaining course indicates cell phone use and texting definitely impacts working memory of these tasks.

"We are using the findings to help physical therapy patients improve true functional walking while making them aware that some tasks may affect their gait and/or certain aspects of memory recall," Lamberg said.

He points out that using a cell phone while walking reflects a "real world" activity, one that recovering patients are likely to engage in sooner rather than later during their recovery process --making this study a potentially valuable clue to future therapies.[]