Predicting cognitive decline in healthy older adults.
OBJECTIVE
Authors performed a neuropsychological determination of which individuals in a group of community-dwelling, healthy elderly volunteers would develop cognitive decline.


METHODS
A group of 155 volunteers reporting good memory and thinking participated in a prospective study over 4 years. Authors monitored cognitive functioning and incidence of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)/Alzheimer disease (AD).


RESULTS
Baseline assessment revealed a subgroup of participants with deficits in associative learning and naming; subsequent cognitive decline was more precipitous in these individuals, who also showed higher relative risk of MCI/AD.


CONCLUSIONS
Cognitive measures may be useful in community and clinical dementia screening and applicable for identifying enriched samples for trials of anti-dementia treatments.
De Jager
Celeste
C
OPTIMA, University of Oxford, Dept. of Pharmacology, Oxford, UK.
Blackwell
Andrew D
AD
Budge
Marc M
MM
Sahakian
Barbara J
BJ
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D000849:Anomia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D001245:Association Learning; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D012307:Risk Factors