Simple Test Finds 1 in 10 Show Signs of Pre-Dementia

A new test that measured how fast people walk and evaluated individuals' cognitive difficulties found that approximately 1 in 10 people met pre-dementia criteria, according to a recent study involving 27,000 older adults on 5 different continents.

“In many clinical and community settings, people don’t have access to the sophisticated tests—biomarker assays, cognitive tests or neuroimaging studies—used to diagnose people at risk for developing dementia,” said Joe Verghese, MBBS, senior author of the study and professor of neurology and medicine at Yeshiva University.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
Walking Speed, Grip Strength at Middle Age May Predict Dementia
Gait Disturbances May Indicate Development of Cognitive Impairment
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Our assessment method could enable many more people to learn if they’re at risk for dementia, since it avoids the need for complex testing and doesn’t require that the test be administered by a neurologist. The potential payoff could be tremendous—not only for individuals and their families, but also in terms of healthcare savings for society,” he said.

In order to test whether motoric cognitive risk (MCR) predicts dementia, the study included individual data from 26,802 adults—ages 60 years and older— taken from 22 cohorts throughout 17 countries. 

Investigators then focused on 4 out of the 22 studies that tested 4,812 participants for MCR in order to test if MCR predicts the development of dementia. They evaluated the participants annually over a 12-year follow-up period.

Researchers found that 9.7% of adults met the MCR criteria: a slow gait—less than 1 meter/per second—and cognitive complaints.

Investigators also discovered that people who exhibited pre-dementia were twice as likely to develop dementia within 12 years.

The complete study is published in the July issue of Neurology.

-Michelle Canales

References:

Verghese J, Annweiler C, Ayers E, et al. Motoric cognitive risk syndrome. Neurology. 2014 July [epub ahead of print] doi: 1212/WNL.0000000000000717.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine. New test for pre-dementia. July 25, 2014. www.einstein.yu.edu/news/releases/1028/slow-walking-speed-and-memory-complaints-can-predict-dementia/. Accessed July 29, 2014.