Elderly people who have slow walking speed and memory issues are possibly at risk of developing dementia, a new research by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center cautions.
The analysis of data of 26,802 elderly participants from five continents found that cognitive problems and inability to manage fast or medium walking pace are indicators of dementia. All the patients aged at least 60 were enrolled in 22 studies across 17 nations.
Researchers performed a test to measure motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR), a sign of pre-dementia. The gait speed of the respondents was recorded and the researchers asked them about their cognitive function.
"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...All that's needed to assess MCR is a stopwatch and a few questions, so primary care physicians could easily incorporate it into examinations of their older patients," senior study author, Joe Verghese, M.B.B.S., professor in the Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology at Einstein, said in a press release.
The results showed that 9.7 percent of the participants had MCR, meaning that they had a slow walking speed and cognitive problems. Researchers noted that MCR was equally common in men and women but more prevalent in people with less education.
"Even in the absence of a specific cause, we know that most healthy lifestyle factors, such as exercising and eating healthier, have been shown to reduce the rate of cognitive decline," said Dr. Verghese. "In addition, our group has shown that cognitively stimulating activities-playing board games, card games, reading, writing and also dancing-can delay dementia's onset. Knowing they're at high risk for dementia can also help people and their families make arrangements for the future, which is an aspect of MCR testing that I've found is very important in my own clinical practice."
The study was published in the journal Neurology.
