걸음걸이 보면 '치매' 예측할 수 있다 Walking Speed Can Help Predict Whether You Are At Risk For Alzheimer's Disease
느리면 발병률 높아
source medicaldaily.com
edited by kcontents
케이콘텐츠 편집
나이 든 부모님이 혹 치매에 걸리지 않으실지 걱정된다면 평소 걸음걸이를 유심히 관찰해 보는 게 좋을 듯하다. 걷는 속도와 쥐는 힘을 보면 치매와 심장 발작 발병 여부를 예측할 수 있다는 연구결과가 있기 때문이다. 미국 보스턴메디컬센터(BMC) 연구팀은 평균 연령 62세의 노인 2400명의 보행속도와 악력, 두뇌 상태 간의 상관관계에 대해 관찰한 결과, 보행속도가 느린 사람들은 빨리 걷는 이들에 비해 치매 발병률이 매우 높다는 것을 발견했다. 11년간의 추적 관찰 결과, 34명이 치매에 걸렸고 70명은 심장 발작을 일으켰는데 관찰을 시작할 때 보행속도가 느렸던 사람들은 빨리 걷는 이들에 비해 치매 발병률이 1.5배 더 높은 것으로 나타났다. 또 65세 이상 노인 중 악력이 센 사람들은 악력이 약한 사람들에 비해 심장 발작이 일어날 확률이 42% 낮은 것으로 나타났다. 다만 이 같은 차이는 65세 미만의 연령대에서는 나타나지 않았다. 연구팀은 보행속도와 악력이 뇌의 용량, 기억력, 언어, 판단력의 퇴화와 관련성이 있는 것으로 보인다고 밝혔다. 연구팀의 에리카 카마고 박사는 “왜 이 같은 상관관계가 나타나는지는 아직 분명치 않지만 치매 예방에 하나의 단서가 될 수 있을 것”이라고 말했다. 뉴욕 마이모니데스메디컬센터의 신경과장인 마셜 케일슨 박사는 이번 연구에 대해 “최소한 치매와 심장 발작에 대한 조기 예측에 새로운 단서가 될 것”이라면서 “좀 더 젊은 사람들을 상대로 조사를 해 볼 필요가 있다”고 말했다. 이런 내용은 헬스데이뉴스 등에 실렸다. 코메디닷컴 권순일 기자 (kstt77@kormedi.com) |
Walking Speed Can Help Predict Whether You Are At Risk For Alzheimer's Disease
By Susan Scutti
Low tech medicine has not died yet. A simple, minutes-long test of older adults performed in a physician’s office may correctly diagnose the early stages of dementia, a new study finds. The test, which measures motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR), amounts to timing a patient's walking speed and asking whether she or he has any cognitive difficulties. “All that’s needed to assess MCR is a stopwatch and a few questions, so primary care physicians could easily incorporate it into examinations of their older patients,” says Dr. Verghese, the Murray D. Gross Memorial Faculty Scholar in Gerontology at Albert Einstein School of Medicine.
Previously, Verghese and his colleagues studied how abnormal gait patterns might accurately predict whether a patient will go on to develop dementia. “As a young researcher, I examined hundreds of patients and noticed that if an older person was walking slowly, there was a good chance that his cognitive tests were also abnormal,” says Verghese. Hoping to improve on this basic concept, Verghese and his team evaluated whether a patient’s walking speed combined with cognitive difficulties might forecast dementia.
The new study examined the prevalence of MCR among 26,802 adults enrolled in 22 studies in 17 countries. All of the adults were over the age of 60 and none suffered from either dementia or disability. Still, a significant number — just under 10 percent — met the criteria for MCR in that they walked abnormally slow and complained of cognitive difficulties. For this study, a slow walking speed was considered to be less than 2.2 miles per hour. After analyzing the results, the researchers found MCR to be equally common among men and women, while those with less education were more likely to test positive.
Next, the researchers focused on a subset of four of the 22 studies. These four studies included a total of 4,812 patients who had been evaluated for MCR, so the researchers continued to track them annually over an average follow-up period of 12 years. What did the researchers discover? Over the 12 year period, those who met the criteria for MCR were nearly twice as likely to develop dementia than those who had not met the criteria.
Alone, a slow walking speed is not sufficient for a diagnosis of MCR — after all, a condition such as arthritis could affect a patient’s gait without leading to cognitive troubles. To meet the criteria for MCR, Verghese emphasizes, a patient must also demonstrate cognitive problems. “Our assessment method could enable many more people to learn if they’re at risk for dementia, since it avoids the need for complex testing and doesn’t require that the test be administered by a neurologist,” says Verghese. “The potential payoff could be tremendous — not only for individuals and their families, but also in terms of healthcare savings for society.”
Source: Verghese J, Annweiler C, Ayers E, et al. Motoric cognitive risk syndrome: Multi-country prevalence and dementia risk. Neurology. 2014.
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