Gait Indicators Contribute to Screening Cognitive Impairment: A Single- and Dual-Task Gait Study

Background: Screening cognitive impairment is complex and not an appliance for early screening. Gait performance is strongly associated with cognitive impairment. Objectives: We aimed to explore gait indicators that could potentially screen cognitive dysfunction. Methods: A total of 235 subjects were recruited from June 2021 to June 2022. Four gait tasks, including the walking test, the timed “Up & Go” test (TUG), foot pressure balance (FPB), and one-legged standing with eyes closed test (OLS-EC), were performed. Moreover, in the walking test, participants were instructed to walk at their usual pace for the single-gait test. For the dual-task tests, participants walked at their usual pace while counting backward from 100 by 1s. The data were analyzed by the independent sample t-test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression, a linear trend, stratified and interaction analysis, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and Pearson’s correlations. Results: Among the 235 participants, 81 (34.5%) were men and 154 (65.5%) were women. The mean age of participants was 72 ± 7.836 years. The control, MCI, mild AD, and severe AD groups had means of 71, 63, 71, and 30, respectively. After adjusting for age, sex, education, and body mass index (BMI), the dual-task toe-off-ground angle (TOA) (odds ratio (OR) = 0.911, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.847, 0.979), single-task TOA (OR = 0.904, 95% CI: 0.841−0.971), and the timed “Up & Go” time (TUGT) (OR = 1.515, 95% CI: 1.243−1.846) were significantly associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment. In addition, the trend test and stratified analysis results had no significant differences (all p > 0.05). The area under the roc curve (AUC) values of TOA in the dual-task and TUGT were 0.812 and 0.847, respectively. Additionally, TOA < 36.75° in the dual-task, TOA < 38.90° in the single-task, and TUGT > 9.83 seconds (s) are likely to indicate cognitive impairment. The cognitive assessment scale scores were significantly correlated with TOA (all r > 0.3, p < 0.001) and TUGT (all r > 0.2), respectively. Conclusion: TOA and TUGT scores are, in some circumstances, associated with cognitive impairment; therefore, they can be used as simple initial screenings to identify patients at risk.