A good person may have walked the straight and narrow path his or her whole life, but when that person ages, walking along a curved path may be helpful to detect any early signs of mild cognitive decline, or MCI, a new study shows.
Although many tests to analyze gait and coordination involve walking straight, such as down a hall, a curved route actually may be a better method to detect mild cognitive deficit, the researchers found.
MCI often is a precursor to more serious forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s. Approximately 22% of older adults have MCI, a Columbia University study found, but that figure is higher for residents in senior living communities and nursing homes than for individuals living alone.
Correctly diagnosing MCI remains a challenge for clinicians; over a four-year pre-pandemic period, only 8% of MCI cases were properly diagnosed, a recent study found.
In long-term care settings, identifying MCI could slow further decline and also help prevent falling emergencies.
In the curved walking study, researchers used a sophisticated camera that could track 25 separate joint movements — and 50 gait markers — among study participants, who were asked to perform both straight and curved walking tests.
Compared with the straight-walking tests, the curved test showed more than double the number of gait issues between MCI and healthier subjects, the researchers found.
“Our comprehensive approach enhances the understanding of gait characteristics,” lead author Behnaz Ghoorani, PhD, said in a statement. “[It] suggests curved path walking may be more sensitive to detect mild cognitive dementia, which can complement cognitive assessments and aid in early diagnosis and management.”
The results offer new potential in how screening and monitoring for MCI can be conducted in both long-term care and clinical settings, the researchers suggested.
The research was conducted by scientists at Florida Atlantic University. Their findings were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease Reports.
