Association of Age with Dual-Task Objective Cognitive Indicators and Gait Parameters in Older Adults

Early recognition of dementia like Alzheimer's disease is crucial for disease diagnosis and treatment, and existing objective tools for early screening of cognitive impairment are limited.

To investigate age-related behavioral indicators of dual-task cognitive performance and gait parameters and to explore potential objective markers of early cognitive decline.

The community-based cognitive screening data was analyzed. Hierarchical cluster analysis and Pearson correlation analysis were performed on the 9-item subjective cognitive decline (SCD-9) scores, walking-cognitive dual-task performance, walking speed, and gait parameters of 152 participants. The significant differences of indicators that may related to cognitive decline were statistically analyzed across six age groups. A mathematical model with age as the independent variable and motor cognition composite score as the dependent variable was established to observe the trend of motor cognition dual-task performance with age.

Strong correlation was found between motor cognitive scores and SCD and age. Gait parameters like the mean value of ankle angle, the left-right difference rate of ankle angle and knee angle and the coefficient of variation of gait cycle showed an excellent correlation with age. Motor cognition scores showed a decreasing trend with age. The slope of motor cognition scores with age after 50 years (k = -1.06) was six times higher than that before 50 years (k = -0.18).

Cognitive performance and gait parameters in the walking-cognitive dual-task state are promising objective markers that could characterize age-related cognitive decline.