Hand fine motor skill disability correlates with dementia severity

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Gerontology
• Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

• Dementia progression is linked to increasing disability, affecting motor and cognitive functions.
• Fine motor skills are crucial for daily activities and can be impacted by dementia.
• The Functioning Disability Evaluation Scale - Adult Version (FUNDES-Adult) assesses functional disability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between hand fine motor skills and dementia severity.
• To determine if fine motor skill assessment can differentiate between mild and moderate to severe dementia.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Taiwan Data Bank of Persons with Disability for individuals with mild and moderate to severe dementia.
• Assessed hand fine motor skills including pen-holding, buttoning, and knotting using the FUNDES-Adult.
• Employed SAS for statistical analysis, with P values < 0.05 considered significant.

Main Results:

• Significant increases in fine motor skill disability were observed in moderate to severe dementia patients compared to mild dementia patients.
• Fine motor skill assessment demonstrated sensitivity (78.1%) and specificity (55.2%) in distinguishing dementia severity.
• Fine motor skill disability was associated with a 3.71-fold higher risk of moderate to severe dementia.

Conclusions:

• Hand fine motor skill disability is more prevalent in moderate to severe dementia.
• Simple motor skill assessments can potentially serve as a community-based screening tool for dementia progression.