It is well accepted that as we age, we lose muscle strength and become slower, making normal activities such as getting up, walking, and sitting more difficult. But new Edith Cowan University (ECU) research indicates it could also be a sign of another looming health concern of ageing: late-life dementia. To investigate the relationship between muscle function and dementia, research teams from ECU’s Institute of Nutrition and Health Innovation Research and the Center for Precision Health conducted the Perth Longitudinal Study in Women to examine more than 1,000 women with an average age of 75. Used data from the Study of Aging.
In collaboration with the University of Western Australia, the team measured the women’s grip strength and the time it took them to rise from a chair, walk three metres, turn around and sit back down – known as time up-and-go ( TUG) test. These tests were repeated after five years to monitor for any loss of performance. Over the next 15 years, about 17 percent of the women in the study had an incidence of dementia, classified as a dementia-related hospitalization or death.
The team found that low grip strength and slow TUG were significant risk factors for presenting with dementia, independent of genetic risk and lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and physical activity levels. Women with the weakest grip were found to be more than twice as likely to develop dementia in late life than those with the strongest.
A similar relationship emerged between TUG performance and dementia, with the slowest in their TUG test being twice as likely to experience dementia than the fastest. When the researchers looked at changes in grip strength and TUG test results five years later, decreased performance was also linked to greater dementia risk. Those who experienced the greatest declines in grip strength and TUG speed were approximately 2 and 2.5 times more likely to have a dementia event, respectively, than those in the group that experienced the smallest decline in performance Was. Women with the greatest decline in TUG performance were found to be four times more likely to have a dementia-related death than those with the fastest decline.
an early warning
Senior researcher Dr Mark Sim said grip strength, which can be easily measured using a handheld device known as a dynamometer, could be a measure of brain health because of the overlapping nature of cognitive and motor decline. “Possibly due to a range of underlying commonalities, grip strength may also exist as a surrogate measure of cardiovascular disease, inflammation, and frailty, which are risk factors for dementia,” Dr Sim said.
Dr Sim said the study’s findings could help health professionals identify dementia risk in patients. “The inclusion of muscle function tests as part of dementia screening may be useful for identifying high-risk individuals who may benefit from primary prevention programs aimed at preventing the onset of the condition, such as a healthy diet and a physically active lifestyle.” Exciting findings. A decline in these measures was significantly associated with a higher risk, suggesting that if we can stop this decline, we may be able to prevent late-stage dementia. However, further research is needed in this area.”
Professor Simon Lodge, director of the Center for Precision Health, said encouraging progress has been made in identifying the early warning signs of dementia. The overall risk profile for individuals presenting to their GP with, for example, memory concerns,” he said. ‘Impaired muscle function, including its decline, is related to greater long-term late-life dementia risk in older women. , was published in the journal Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle.