Al-Marsad Newspaper: A study revealed that gait disturbances were the first warning signs of dementia, not memory loss, through the samples that examined its data.
Published in the journal Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, the researchers selected a number of participants with preclinical dementia and others without dementia for comparison, from the Dutch GP Registration Network (RNH).
Curiously, the researchers found, gait disturbances were a “first predictor” of dementia. These gait disturbances are described as deviations from normal walking.
“Cognitive complaints were predictive of dementia in the three years prior to diagnosis. All other symptoms, except vascular symptoms, were predictive in the year prior to diagnosis,” the researchers wrote.
According to the researchers, sensitivity was higher for cognitive symptoms and gait disturbances in the year prior to diagnosis. They concluded: “Getting disturbances and cognitive complaints are the first symptoms of preclinical dementia.”