Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 17, 2026
Gait Analysis of Age-dependent Motor Impairments in Mice with Neurodegeneration
Published on: June 18, 2018
Quantitative gait dysfunction and risk of cognitive decline and dementia
Joe Verghese1, Cuiling Wang, Richard B Lipton
1Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1165 Morris Park Avenue, Room 338, Bronx, New York 10461, USA. jverghes@aecom.yu.edu
Background:
Identifying quantitative gait markers of preclinical dementia may lead to new insights into early disease stages, improve diagnostic assessments and identify new preventive strategies.
Objective:
To examine the relationship of quantitative gait parameters to decline in specific cognitive domains as well as the risk of developing dementia in older adults.
Methods:
We conducted a prospective cohort study nested within a community based ageing study. Of the 427 subjects aged 70 years and older with quantitative gait assessments, 399 were dementia-free at baseline.
Results:
Over 5 years of follow-up (median 2 years), 33 subjects developed dementia. Factor analysis was used to reduce eight baseline quantitative gait parameters to three independent factors representing pace, rhythm and variability. In linear models, a 1 point increase on the rhythm factor was associated with further memory decline (by 107%), whereas the pace factor was associated with decline on executive function measured by the digit symbol substitution (by 29%) and letter fluency (by 92%) tests. In Cox models adjusted for age, sex and education, a 1 point increase on baseline rhythm (hazard ratio (HR) 1.48; 95% CI 1.03 to 2.14) and variability factor scores (HR 1.37; 95% CI 1.05 to 1.78) was associated with increased risk of dementia. The pace factor predicted the risk of developing vascular dementia (HR 1.60; 95% CI 1.06 to 2.41).
Conclusion:
Our findings indicate that quantitative gait measures predict future risk of cognitive decline and dementia in initially non-demented older adults.
