Quick Speech Test Could Identify Mild Cognitive Impairment
A 1-minute speech test might effectively identify patients with early signs of mild cognitive impairment, according to a recent study presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference.
In the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention study, a cohort of 399 participants who were cognitively healthy at baseline completed a picture description task, which was recorded. The researchers assessed connected speech measures of the samples using exploratory and confirmatory analyses (EFA, CFA), and conducted additional analyses of samples obtained from a cohort of 219 participants at 2 times points. Overall, the EFA/CFA factor structure used to analyze the speech samples met the goodness-of-fit criteria.
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Cognitive status was found to be a significant predictor of semantic and syntax factors at the first assessment. In addition, baseline syntax and changes in fluency were significant predictors of early mild cognitive impairment at the latest visit.
“This is the first study to demonstrate a confirmed factor structure of connected speech measures in a prospective [Alzheimer Disease]-risk-enriched cohort,” the researchers concluded. “Unexpectedly, participants with [early mild cognitive impairment] performed higher on the Semantic factor at baseline; however, they declined more steeply than the [cognitively healthy] group over time.”
“Future analyses will continue to examine longitudinal relationships among speech factors and subtypes of cognitive impairment (memory, executive function, language), which may contribute to early identification of and intervention for AD.”
—Melissa Weiss
Reference:
Mueller KD, Koscik RL, Turkstra LS, et al. Signs of early cognitive decline within connected speech: evidence from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP). Presented at: Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2017; July 16-20, 2017; London, UK. Abstract a18732.