Abnormality of Gait as a Predictor of Non-Alzheimer's Dementia

Neurologic abnormalities affecting gait occur early in several types of non-Alzheimer's dementias, but their value in predicting the development of dementia is uncertain.

We analyzed the relation between neurologic gait status at base line and the development of dementia in a prospective study involving 422 subjects older than 75 years of age who lived in the community and did not have dementia at base line. Cox proportional-hazards regression analysis was used to calculate hazard ratios with adjustment for potential confounding demographic, medical, and cognitive variables.