A newly created diagnostic test that focuses on a person's walking ability can help determine early signs of dementia.
The test was developed as part of a new study on a person's memory ability and walking speed.
"As a young researcher, I examined hundreds of patients and noticed that if an older person was walking slowly, there was a good chance that his cognitive tests were also abnormal," said senior study author Dr. Joe Verghese, a professor in the Saul. R. Korey Department of Neurology and the Department of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Early diagnosis of dementia is critical to helping treat and slow the disease, and possibly even stop it from progressing, say medical professionals.
The new test is called Motoric Cognitive Risk syndrome (MCR). It measures a person's walking manner and includes asking a patient several simple questions. It was developed as part of a study involving 27,000 older adults living in five different continents. The results determined that one of 10 met criteria for predementia symptoms. The study was published in the journal Neurology.
Verghese said such simple tests are especially needed in emerging countries and in populations where extensive medical equipment and intricate testing, such as neuroimaging, is not available. One report notes that nearly 5.2 million Americans are suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which is the most known form of dementia.
"This gave me the idea that perhaps we could use this simple clinical sign -- how fast someone walks -- to predict who would develop dementia," said Verghese.
The study reveals that participants who met the criteria for MCR were almost twice as likely to develop dementia during the 12-year follow-up, say researchers.
"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," said Verghese.
As Tech Times recently reported, the number of diagnosed cases of dementia is on the decline.
A collection of research reveals dementia diagnosis has dropped 44 percent compared with diagnosis levels in the late 1970s. Several health factors are playing a role in the reported decline, say researchers. A primary one may be improved cardiovascular health, according to Claudia Satizabal, a researcher at Boston University School of Medicine.
