Background: Poor gait performance predicts risk of developing dementia. No structured critical evaluation has been conducted to study this association yet. The aim of this meta-analysis was to systematically examine the association of poor gait performance with incidence of dementia.

Methods: An English and French Medline search was conducted in June 2015, with no limit of date, usingthe medical subject headings terms "Gait" OR "Gait Disorders, Neurologic" OR "Gait Apraxia" OR "Gait Ataxia" AND "Dementia" OR "Frontotemporal Dementia" OR "Dementia, Multi-Infarct" OR "Dementia, Vascular" OR "Alzheimer Disease" OR "Lewy Body Disease" OR "Frontotemporal Dementia With Motor Neuron Disease" (Supplementary Concept). Poor gait performance was defined by standardized tests of walking, and dementia was diagnosed according to international consensus criteria. Four etiologies of dementia were identified: any dementia, Alzheimer disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), and non-AD (ie, pooling VaD, mixed dementias, and other dementias). Fixed effects meta-analyses were performed on the estimates in order to generate summary values.

Results: Of the 796 identified abstracts,12 (1.5%) were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. Poor gait performance predicted dementia [pooled hazard ratio (HR) combined with relative risk and odds ratio ¼ 1.53 with P < .001 for any dementia, pooled HR ¼ 1.79 with P < .001 for VaD, HR ¼ 1.89 with P value < .001 for non-AD]. Findings were weaker for predicting AD (HR ¼ 1.03 with P value ¼ .004).

Conclusions: This meta-analysis provides evidence that poor gait performance predicts dementia. This association depends on the type of dementia; poor gait performance is a stronger predictor of non-AD dementias than AD.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	Epidemiology, gait disorders/ataxia, motor control, dementia
Research Division:	Health Sciences
Research Group:	Epidemiology
Research Field:	Epidemiology not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Specific population health (excl. Indigenous health)
Objective Field:	Health related to ageing
UTAS Author:	Callisaya, ML (Dr Michele Callisaya)
UTAS Author:	Srikanth, V (Dr Velandai Srikanth)
ID Code:	110439
Year Published:	2016
Web of Science® Times Cited:	99
Deposited By:	Menzies Institute for Medical Research
Deposited On:	2016-07-27
Last Modified:	2017-11-06
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