Timed Up and Go test, atrophy of medial temporal areas and cognitive functions in community-dwelling older adults with normal cognition and mild cognitive impairment

Abstract

AimThis study aimed to ascertain if performance on the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test is associated with indicators of brain volume and cognitive functions among community-dwelling older adults with normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment. MethodsParticipants were 80 community-dwelling older adults aged 65–89years (44 men, 36 women), including 20 with mild cognitive impairment. Participants completed the TUG and a battery of cognitive assessments, including the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Logical Memory I and II (LM-I, LM-II) subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised; and the Trail Making Test A and B (TMT-A, TMT-B). Bilateral, right- and left-side medial temporal area atrophy as well as whole gray and white matter indices were determined with the Voxel-based Specific Regional Analysis System for Alzheimer's Disease. We divided participants into three groups based on TUG performance: “better” (≤6.9s); “normal” (7–10s); and “poor” (≥10.1s). ResultsWorse TMT-A and TMT-B performance showed significant independent associations with worse TUG performance (P<0.05, P<0.01 for trend, respectively). After adjusting for covariates, severe atrophy of bilateral, right-, and left-side medial temporal areas were significantly independently associated with worse TUG performance (P<0.05 for trend). However, no significant associations were found between MMSE, LM-I, LM-II, whole gray and white matter indices, and TUG performance. ConclusionsWorse TUG performance is related to poor performance on TMT-A and TMT-B, and is independently associated with severe medial temporal area atrophy in community-dwelling older adults.