Study highlights how smartphone-based navigation tasks can serve as an innovative tool for identifying subtle cognitive changes in older adults, potentially offering early insight into dementia risk. Study: Identifying older adults at risk for dementia based on smartphone data obtained during a wayfinding task in the real world. Image Credit: Lee Charlie / Shutterstock.
com A recent study published in the journal PLOS Digital Health reports that subtle cognitive changes in people with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) can be inferred from smartphone data collected during a wayfinding task. The importance of diagnosing dementia early About 58 million individuals are living with dementia worldwide, with 69 million estimated to be in the prodromal stage. The prevalence of dementia is projected to triple by 2050 due to rising life expectancies and population growth in many countries.
Although phase III clinical trials have demonstrated that several drugs can alter the trajectory of dementia, there is currently no cure for this disease. Thus, there remains an urgent need to develop novel diagnostic tools that can assess cognitive functioning in asymptomatic individuals people who may exhibit subtle changes associated with an increased risk of dementia. Recently, researchers have become increasingly interested in the potential utility of digital cognitive assessment tools, as they have the potential to detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI)-grade episodic memory impairments.
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