Discrimination of mild cognitive impairment and estimation of cognition using foot pressure information during walking

Abstract

The number of elderly dementia patients is increasing year by year and has become a social problem. As the symptoms of dementia progress, the physical functions of the patient deteriorate, leading to a vicious cycle of reduced physical activity. However, in the case of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), half of the patients with dementia can recover to normal with treatment. Therefore, early detection of dementia is essential. Therefore, we focused on gait disorder, which is one of the symptoms of dementia. As an experimental method, we conducted a walking experiment using insoles with pressure sensors placed in them. Three cognitive estimation parameters were extracted from the obtained foot pressure data. In addition, the Hasegawa dementia scale-revised (HDS-R) was used to measure the cognitive function of the subjects. Multiple regression analysis and binomial logistic regression analysis were performed to examine the relationship between cognitive function and cognitive estimation parameters. The results showed that a highly accurate cognitive function estimation equation was obtained in the group of MCI. In addition, discriminant equations were obtained with high accuracy for normal and MCI, and for dementia person and normal with MCI. This study enables us to confirm the decline of cognitive function from walking behavior during activities of daily living and may be useful for early detection and treatment of dementia.