A memory test may be able to predict cognitive decline ten years later. The corresponding study was published in Neurology.
“There is increasing evidence that some people with no thinking and memory problems may actually have very subtle signs of early cognitive impairment,” said study author Ellen Grober, Ph.D., of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York in a press release.
“In our study, a sensitive and simple memory test predicted the risk of developing cognitive impairment in people who were otherwise considered to have normal cognition,” she added.
For the study, the researchers recruited 696 people with an average age of 69 years old. All had normal cognition at the beginning of the study, when they were asked to complete a simple memory test. For the test, they had to identify and recall items from different categories ie. to say whether an image is a grape and then to say whether it is a fruit.
After completing the test, the participants were divided into five groups according to their test scores and the Stages of the Objective memory impairment (SOMI) system. Stage zero represents no memory problems, while stages one and two represent increasing difficulty in retrieving memories that may proceed to dementia within 5-8 years. Meanwhile, stages three and four represented people who could not remember items even after cues. These stages precede dementia by one to three years. The researchers followed the participants for ten years.
After ten years, around 72% of those in stages three and four developed cognitive impairment. The same was true for 57% of those in the second stage, 35% in the first stage, and 21% of those in stage zero. The associations remained even after adjusting for factors including genetic risk, sex, education, and biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease, including amyloid plaques and tau tangles.
“Our results support the use of the SOMI system to identify people most likely to develop cognitive impairment,” said Grober, “Detecting cognitive impairment at its earliest stages is beneficial to researchers investigating treatments. It also could benefit those people who are found to be at increased risk by consulting with their physician and implementing interventions to promote healthy brain aging.”
Sources: Neuroscience News, Neurology
