Walking speed may help predict dementia: Study

Zee Media Bureau

Washington: A recent study has revealed that walking speed and constant forgetfulness of a person can give away the early signs of dementia.

According to the researchers, early diagnosis allows time to identify and possibly treat the underlying causes of the disease, which may delay or even prevent the onset of dementia in some cases.

The new test diagnosis Motoric Cognitive Risk syndrome (MCR) has been developed to measure the gait speed (our manner of walking), it also requires asking a few simple questions about a patient's cognitive abilities, both of which takes just a few seconds.  

The scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center, had put 27,000 older adults on five continents to a simple test measuring their walking speed and cognitive problems and has found that nearly 1 in 10 met the criteria for pre-dementia.

Joe Verghese a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University explains that 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, hence their new assessment method could enable many more people to learn if they're at risk of dementia, since it avoids the need for complex testing and doesn't require the test to be administered by a neurologist.

With Agency Inputs