Slowing gait speed may signal the onset of dementia up to nine years before cognitive decline becomes evident. It also is tied to new brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease, the results of a long-term study show.
Investigators tracked cognition scores and gait speed in more than 280 adults over 15 years. Participants were aged 70 or more years, and none showed measurable evidence of cognitive decline at the study’s start.
In most cases, participants whose Clinical Dementia Rating scores worsened in follow-up examinations also had evidence of slower gait speed as measured by a standardized test. And those with dementia-related brain changes also lost gait speed when compared with their performance in prior clinical check-ins.
If slowed gait reflects early dementia progression, then gait speed measurements might be a useful addition to dementia risk assessments, concluded Tobias Skillbäck, M.D., of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
“These results strengthen the case for using gait speed in concert with other modalities for early detection of subjects with increased risk of developing dementia,” he and his colleagues wrote.
The study was published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
