Relationships Between a New Cultured Cell-Based Serum Anticholinergic Activity Assay and Anticholinergic Burden Scales or Cognitive Performance in Older Adults

Background: Drugs with anticholinergic properties are known to be associated with deleterious effects on cognition in older adults. There is a paucity of literature in this aspect in older adults with psychiatric disorders. Objective: To examine the anticholinergic cognitive burden and its predictors in hospitalised older adults having psychiatric disorders. Methods: Case records of older adults who sought inpatient care under the Geriatric Psychiatry Unit from January, 2019 to June, 2019 were reviewed. The anticholinergic burden was assessed with Anticholinergic Cognitive Burden (ACB) scale updated version, 2012. Results: Sample included 129 older adults with an almost equal number of males (53.48%) and females (46.52%) having a mean age of 67.84 (SD = 6.96) years. The diagnostic spectrum included depression (34.89%), dementia (31.01%), mania (10.85%), psychosis (13.95%), delirium (6.20%) and others (3.1%). 60.47% of the patients had more than one medical illness. 48.84% of the older adults had clinically relevant anticholinergic cognitive burden ( ACB score ≥ 3). Use of 3 or more psychotropic drugs (OR = 4.88), diagnosis of psychosis/ mania (OR = 7.62) and dementia/ delirium (neurocognitive disorders group) (OR = 5.17) increased the risk of ACB score ≥ 3. Conclusion: Nearly half of the older adults in psychiatry in-patient setting had clinically relevant anticholinergic burden, which was associated with higher use of psychotropics. Our study highlights the importance of monitoring for anticholinergic effects of psychotropics in older adults.

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The Benefits of Physical Activity in Individuals with Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Longitudinal Investigation Using fNIRS and Dual-Task Walking

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm10040579 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 579

Author(s):

Deborah Talamonti ◽

Thomas Vincent ◽

Sarah Fraser ◽

Anil Nigam ◽

Frédéric Lesage ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Risk Factors ◽

Older Adults ◽

Cardiovascular Risk ◽

Cardiovascular Risk Factors ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Dual Task ◽

Gait Speed ◽

Regular Physical Activity ◽

Cortical Response

Cardiovascular fitness is linked to better executive functions, preserved gait speed, and efficient cortical activity. Older adults with cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs) typically show poor cognitive performance, low physical fitness, and altered brain functioning compared with healthy individuals. In the current study, the impact of regular physical activity on cognition, locomotion, and brain functions was explored in a cohort of older adults with low or high CVRFs. Cortical activation of the frontal areas was investigated using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) at baseline, at 6 months and at 12 months. Evoked cortical response and behavioral performance were assessed using the dual-task walking paradigm, consisting of three conditions: single cognitive task (2-back task), single walking task (walking), and dual-task (2-back whilst walking). Results show greater task-related cortical response at baseline in individuals with high CVRFs compared to those with low CVRFs. Moreover, participants with high CVRFs benefitted the most from participating in regular physical activity, as their cortical response decreased at the 12-month follow-up and became comparable to that of participants with low CVRFs. These changes were observed in conjunction with improved cognitive performance and stable gait speed throughout the 12-month period in both groups. Our findings provide evidence that participation in regular physical activity may be especially beneficial in individuals with CVRFs by promoting brain and cognitive health, thus potentially contributing to prevention of cognitive decline. Future research may explore whether such effects are maintained in the long-term in order to design ad-hoc interventions in this specific population.

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Effects of Age, Level of Education and HIV Status on Cognitive Performance in West African Older Adults: The West Africa IeDEA Cohort Collaboration

AIDS and Behavior ◽

10.1007/s10461-021-03309-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

C. Bernard ◽

◽

H. Font ◽

Z. Diallo ◽

R. Ahonon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

West Africa ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

West African ◽

Hiv Status ◽

The West ◽

Level Of Education

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Evaluation of Motor and Cognitive Performance in People with Parkinson’s Disease Using Instrumented Trail-Making Test

Gerontology ◽

10.1159/000515940 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-7

Author(s):

Ram kinker Mishra ◽

Catherine Park ◽

He Zhou ◽

Bijan Najafi ◽

T. Adam Thrasher

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Pairwise Comparison ◽

Walking Test ◽

Cognitively Normal ◽

Early Results ◽

Trail Making ◽

Changes Over Time

Introduction: Parkinson’s disease (PD) progressively impairs motor and cognitive performance. The current tools to detect decline in motor and cognitive functioning are often impractical for busy clinics and home settings. To address the gap, we designed an instrumented trail-making task (iTMT) based on a wearable sensor (worn on the shin) with interactive game-based software installed on a tablet. The iTMT test includes reaching to 5 indexed circles, a combination of numbers (1–3) and letters (A&B) randomly positioned inside target circles, in a sequential order, which virtually appears on a screen kept in front of the participants, by rotating one’s ankle joint while standing and holding a chair for safety. By measuring time to complete iTMT task (iTMT time), iTMT enables quantifying cognitive-motor performance. Purpose: This study’s objective is to examine the feasibility of iTMT to detect early cognitive-motor decline in PDs. Method: Three groups of volunteers, including 14 cognitively normal (CN) older adults, 14 PDs, and 11 mild cognitive impaireds (MCI), were recruited. Participants completed MoCA, 20 m walking test, and 3 trials of iTMT. Results: All participants enabled to complete iTMT with <3 min, indicating high feasibility. The average iTMT time for CN-Older, PD, and MCI participants were 20.9 ± 0.9 s, 32.3 ± 2.4 s, and 40.9 ± 4.5 s, respectively. After adjusting for age and education level, pairwise comparison suggested large effect sizes for iTMT between CN-older versus PD (Cohen’s d = 1.7, p = 0.024) and CN-older versus MCI (d = 1.57, p < 0.01). Significant correlations were observed when comparing iTMT time with the gait speed (r = −0.4, p = 0.011) and MoCA score (r = −0.56, p < 0.01). Conclusion: This study demonstrated the feasibility and early results supporting the potential application of iTMT to determine cognitive-motor and distinguishing individuals with MCI and PD from CN-older adults. Future studies are warranted to test the ability of iTMT to track its subtle changes over time.

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Resting EEG theta power correlates with cognitive performance in healthy older adults

Psychophysiology ◽

10.1111/j.1469-8986.2010.01173.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 48 (8) ◽

pp. 1083-1087 ◽

Cited By ~ 63

Author(s):

Simon Finnigan ◽

Ian H. Robertson

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Theta Power

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Older Adults-Friendly Multi-Modal Touch-Screen Platform Measures for Bilingual Cognitive Interventions

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2972 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 816-816

Author(s):

W Quin Yow ◽

Tharshini Lokanathan ◽

Hui-Ching Chen

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Older Adult ◽

Cognitive Training ◽

Touch Screen ◽

Cognitive Intervention ◽

Cognitive Interventions ◽

Multi Level ◽

Poor Comprehension ◽

Touch Screen Devices

Abstract There is an increasing interest in using touch-screen devices to conduct cognitive training and collect measurements of cognitive performance. However, older adults often have concerns such as anxiety about using these systems and poor comprehension of language instructions (Czaja & Lee, 2007). Given that Singapore is a multilingual society, we examined the deployment of an age-friendly multi-modal touch-screen platform (a game-based application on a tablet) in a cognitive intervention research. After modification of the platform to include features such as simplified instructions, multi-level prompts with a local accent, and four different instructional languages (including local dialects), participants were less reliant on the researchers and reported fewer difficulties in comprehending the instructions. The integrity and reliability of the data collected improved as a result. In sum, multilingual age-friendly touch-screen platform can be a novel yet effective method to study cognitive interventions in the Asian older adult populations.

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The effect of age on postural and cognitive task performance while using vibrotactile feedback

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00083.2014 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 113 (7) ◽

pp. 2127-2136 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Chia-Cheng Lin ◽

Susan L. Whitney ◽

Patrick J. Loughlin ◽

Joseph M. Furman ◽

Mark S. Redfern ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Center Of Pressure ◽

Cognitive Task ◽

Balance Performance ◽

Vibrotactile Feedback ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Age Related ◽

Trunk Tilt ◽

Effect Of Age

Vibrotactile feedback (VTF) has been shown to improve balance performance in healthy people and people with vestibular disorders in a single-task experimental condition. It is unclear how age-related changes in balance affect the ability to use VTF and if there are different attentional requirements for old and young adults when using VTF. Twenty younger and 20 older subjects participated in this two-visit study to examine the effect of age, VTF, sensory condition, cognitive task, duration of time, and visit on postural and cognitive performance. Postural performance outcome measures included root mean square of center of pressure (COP) and trunk tilt, and cognitive performance was assessed using the reaction time (RT) from an auditory choice RT task. The results showed that compared with younger adults, older adults had an increase in COP in fixed platform conditions when using VTF, although they were able to reduce COP during sway-referenced platform conditions. Older adults also did not benefit fully from using VTF in their first session. The RTs for the secondary cognitive tasks increased significantly while using the VTF in both younger and older adults. Older adults had a larger increase compared with younger adults, suggesting that greater attentional demands were required in older adults when using VTF information. Future training protocols for VTF should take into consideration the effect of aging.

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