Project description:Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may occur with old age and is associated with increased cognitive deterioration compared to what is normal. This may affect the person’s quality of life, health, and independence. In this ageing worldwide context, early diagnosis and personalized assistance for MCI therefore become crucial. This paper makes two important contributions: (1) a system (RO-SmartAgeing) to address MCI, which was developed for Romania; and (2) a set of criteria for evaluating its impact on remote health monitoring. The system aims to provide customized non-invasive remote monitoring, health assessment, and assistance for the elderly within a smart environment set up in their homes. Moreover, it includes multivariate AI-based predictive models that can detect the onset of MCI and its development towards dementia. It was built iteratively, following literature reviews and consultations with health specialists, and it is currently being tested in a simulated home environment. While its main strength is the potential to detect MCI early and follow its evolution, RO-SmartAgeing also supports elderly people in living independently, and it is safe, comfortable, low cost, and privacy protected. Moreover, it can be used by healthcare institutions to continuously monitor a patient’s vital signs, position, and activities, and to deliver reminders and alarms.
Project description:In December 2017, the National Academy of Neuropsychology convened an interorganizational Summit on Population Health Solutions for Assessing Cognitive Impairment in Geriatric Patients in Denver, Colorado. The Summit brought together representatives of a broad range of stakeholders invested in the care of older adults to focus on the topic of cognitive health and aging. Summit participants speci?cally examined questions of who should be screened for cognitive impairment and how they should be screened in medical settings. This is important in the context of an acute illness given that the presence of cognitive impairment can have signi?cant implications for care and for the management of concomitant diseases as well as pose a major risk factor for dementia. Participants arrived at general principles to guide future screening approaches in medical populations and identi?ed knowledge gaps to direct future research. Key learning points of the summit included: recognizing the importance of educating patients and healthcare providers about the value of assessing current and baseline cognition;emphasizing that any screening tool must be appropriately normalized and validated in the population in which it is used to obtain accurate information, including considerations of language, cultural factors, and education; andrecognizing the great potential, with appropriate caveats, of electronic health records to augment cognitive screening and tracking of changes in cognitive health over time.
Project description:IntroductionCancer is inversely associated with cognitive impairment. Whether this is due to statistical handling of attrition (death and censoring) is unknown.MethodsWe quantified associations between cancer history and incident cognitive impairment among Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study participants without baseline cognitive impairment or stroke (n = 2604) using multiple competing-risks models and their corresponding estimands: cause-specific, subdistribution, and marginal hazards, plus composite-outcome (cognitive impairment or all-cause mortality) hazards. All-cause mortality was also modeled.ResultsAfter covariate adjustment (demographics, apolipoprotein E ε4, lifestyle, health conditions), cause-specific and marginal hazard ratios (HRs) were similar to each other (≈ 0.84; P values < 0.05). The subdistribution HR was 0.764 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.645-0.906), and composite-outcome Cox model HR was 1.149 (95% CI = 1.016-1.299). Cancer history was positively associated with all-cause mortality (HR = 1.813; 95% CI = 1.525-2.156).DiscussionCause-specific, subdistribution, and marginal hazards models produced inverse associations between cancer and cognitive impairment. Competing risk models answer slightly different questions, and estimand choice influenced findings here.HighlightsCancer history is inversely associated with incident cognitive impairment. Findings were robust to handling of competing risks of death. All models also addressed possible informative censoring bias. Cancer history was associated with 16% lower hazard of cognitive impairment. Cancer history was associated with 81% higher all-cause mortality hazard.
Project description:Magnetization transfer imaging (MTI) can detect microstructural brain tissue changes and may be helpful in determining age-related cerebral damage. We investigated the association between the magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) in gray and white matter (WM) and cognitive functioning in 355 participants of the Austrian stroke prevention family study (ASPS-Fam) aged 38-86 years. MTR maps were generated for the neocortex, deep gray matter structures, WM hyperintensities, and normal appearing WM (NAWM). Adjusted mixed models determined whole brain and lobar cortical MTR to be directly and significantly related to performance on tests of memory, executive function, and motor skills. There existed an almost linear dose-effect relationship. MTR of deep gray matter structures and NAWM correlated to executive functioning. All associations were independent of demographics, vascular risk factors, focal brain lesions, and cortex volume. Further research is needed to understand the basis of this association at the tissue level, and to determine the role of MTR in predicting cognitive decline and dementia.
Project description:Laboratorial and epidemiological researches suggested that tea exhibited potential neuroprotective effect which may prevent cognitive impairment, but there were few data among the elderly aged 60 years and above in China.The objective was to explore the relationship between characteristics of tea consumption and cognitive impairment.We analyzed the baseline data from Zhejiang Major Public Health Surveillance Program (ZPHS) which was conducted in 2014. Totally 9,375 residents aged 60 years and above were recruited in this study. Face-to-face interview based on a self-developed questionnaire was performed for each participant. Detailed tea consumption habits were included in the questionnaire. Cognitive impairment screening was performed by using Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Education-specific cut-off points for Chinese were applied to determine the status of cognitive impairment. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) of cognitive impairment associated with tea consumption.The means (SD) of MMSE scores for the subjects who did not consume tea and consumed <2 cups/d, 2-4 cups/d, ≥4 cups/d were 23.3 (SD = 5.61), 23.8 (SD = 5.60), 24.5 (SD = 5.63) and 25.0 (SD = 5.08), respectively. An inverse correlation was found between tea consumption (of all types) and prevalence of cognitive impairment. Volume of tea consumption was significantly associated with cognitive impairment: compared with non-consumption participants, those who consumed < 2 cups/d, 2-4 cups/d, and ≥4 cups/d were observed ORs of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.56, 1.07), 0.62 (95% CI: 0.47, 0.81), and 0.49 (95% CI: 0.36, 0.66), respectively. Compared with non-consumption, black tea presented a positive correlation with cognitive function after controlling for potential confounders (OR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.95), while green tea showed no significant difference (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 0.72, 1.51). Participants who consumed weak tea, moderate tea or strong tea more often were observed a better cognitive status when compared with those who did not have tea, with an OR of 0.51 (95% CI: 0.28, 0.92), 0.32 (95% CI: 0.19, 0.56) and 0.42 (95% CI: 0.22, 0.78) after adjusting for the potential confounders. But there was no statistically significant difference between any two of these ORs.Black tea consumption was association with better cognitive performance among the elderly aged 60 years and above in China, while green tea presented no correlation. The positive association of cognitive status with tea consumption was not limited to particular type of concentration.
Project description:Individuals with essential tremor (ET) exhibit a range of cognitive deficits generally conceptualized as "dysexecutive" or "fronto-subcortical," and thought to reflect disrupted cortico-cerebellar networks. In light of emerging evidence that ET increases risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD), it is critical to more closely examine the nature of specific cognitive deficits in ET, with particular attention to amnestic deficits that may signal early AD.We performed a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from 128 ET cases (age 80.4±9.5 years) enrolled in a longitudinal, clinical-pathological study. Cases underwent a comprehensive battery of motor-free neuropsychological tests and a functional assessment to inform clinical diagnoses of normal cognition (ET-NC), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (ET-MCI), or dementia (ET-D). ET-MCI was subdivided into subtypes including: amnestic single-domain (a-MCI), amnestic multi-domain (a-MCI+), non-amnestic single-domain (na-MCI), or non-amnestic multi-domain (na-MCI+).Ninety-one (71.1%) cases were ET-NC, 24 (18.8%) were ET-MCI, and 13 (10.2%) were ET-D. Within MCI, the a-MCI+ subtype was the most common (13/24; 54.2%) followed by a-MCI (4/24; 16.7%), na-MCI+ (4/24; 16.7%), and na-MCI (3/24; 12.5%). Cases with amnestic MCI demonstrated lower recognition memory Z-scores (-2.4±1.7) than non-amnestic groups (-0.9±1.2) (p=.042).Amnestic MCI, defined by impaired memory recall but associated with lower memory storage scores, was the most frequent MCI subtype in our study. Such impairment has not been explicitly discussed in the context of ET and may be an early hallmark of AD. Results have implications for the prognosis of specific cognitive deficits in ET. (JINS, 2017, 23, 390-399).
Project description:BackgroundAs a transitional state between normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is characterized by a worse cognitive decline than that of natural aging. The association between AD and gut microbiota has been reported in a number of studies; however, microbial research regarding MCI remains limited.MethodsThis study examined 48 participants, of whom 22 were MCI cases and 26 were normal control cases. Fecal samples were collected for 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) quantitative arrays and bioinformatics analysis.ResultsA principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) both demonstrated that the microbial composition of participants with MCI deviated from that of healthy control participants. Multiple bacterial species were significantly increased (e.g., Staphylococcus intermedius) or decreased (e.g., Bacteroides salyersiae) in samples from the MCI group.ConclusionThe composition of gut microbiota differed between normal control and MCI cases. This is the first study to identify a signature series of species in the gut microbiota of individuals with MCI. The results provide a new direction for the future development of an early diagnosis and probiotic regimen.
Project description:BackgroundWhile high blood pressure has been linked to cognitive impairment, the relationship between low blood pressure, especially hypotension, and cognitive impairment has not been well studied. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of hypotension and cognitive impairment in the seniors of China, and the association between hypotension and cognitive function impairment.MethodsThe data was derived from the 2018 wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). Systolic blood pressures (SBP) and diastolic blood pressures (DBP) were measured by objective examination. The Chinese version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (CMMSE) was used to evaluate the cognitive impairment of the elderly. Generalized linear models were conducted to evaluate the association of hypotension with cognitive impairment.ResultsThe prevalence of hypotension and cognitive impairment in the Chinese elderly were 0.76% and 22.06%, respectively. Participants with hypotension, lower SBP, and lower DBP, had odds ratios of 1.62, 1.38, and 1.48 for cognitive impairment, respectively. Besides, the CMMSE scores decreased by 2.08, 0.86, and 1.08 in the elderly with hypotension, lower SBP, and DBP, compared with those with non-hypotension, higher SBP, and DBP, respectively. Subgroup analyses showed that the association of cognitive impairment with hypotension was stronger in Chinese elderly who had decreased activity of daily living. Moreover, there was statistical evidence of a nonlinear dose-response relationship of SBP and DBP with cognitive impairment (Pnonlinear < 0.05).ConclusionHypotension was a potential risk factor for cognitive impairment of the Chinese elderly, especially for those having decreased activity of daily living. Blood pressure management should be conducted to prevent them from cognitive impairment.