Timed Up and Go test, atrophy of medial temporal areas and cognitive functions in community-dwelling older adults with normal cognition and mild cognitive impairment

Relationships between socio‐clinico‐demographic factors and global cognitive function in the oldest old living in the Tokyo Metropolitan area: Reanalysis of the Tokyo Oldest Old Survey on Total Health (TOOTH)

“…Consistent with our finding, previous studies have demonstrated that lower functional mobility is associated with lower global cognitive function, as well as executive function and processing speed . These studies included not only community‐dwelling older adults but also older people who were institutionalized, consisting of those with a variety of cognitive level from normal to pathological conditions such as MCI and dementia. Therefore, it is suggested that the relationship between global cognition and functional mobility may be universal, which is independent on residential format or original cognitive function.…”

“…Moreover, instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) has also been indicated to be positively associated with global cognition in the populations ranging from healthy people to patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as well as dementia . Additionally, previous studies have demonstrated that people who engaged in more leisure activities or social activities had low risk of dementia or cognitive decline due to enhanced cognitive reserve capacity and further that poor functional mobility is related to lower global cognitive function in older adults regardless of the residence form …”

Slowing gait and risk for cognitive impairment

“…18 Of the gray matter regions assessed previously, the hippocampus has been most consistently associated with measures indicting slower and less stable gait patterns. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] Cross-sectional studies have found positive associations between gait measures and hippocampal integrity, [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] but 2 other studies found no association. 15,28 The only study to assess longitudinal, concurrent changes in gait and regional GMV found that only hippocampal atrophy was associated with declines in gait speed over a mean of 30 months.…”

Identifying elderly people at risk for cognitive decline by using the 2-step test

“…In addition, Kose et al studied the relationship between the Timed Up and Go test (TUG) results, brain atrophy at medial temporal areas, and cognitive functions. They found that lower TUG performance was related to poor performance on the trail-making test and was associated with severe medial temporal atrophy in community-dwelling elderly adults 21 ) . This is consistent with the present results in which a lower 2-step test performance was associated with lower memory retention and may suggest brain atrophy in these participants.…”