TOULOUSE, France, March 13 (UPI) -- Researchers in Europe found a balance test may predict cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease patients.
The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, was carried out in 16 university hospital departments in 10 cities on a total of 686 outpatients.
Geriatricians measured cognitive impairment using the Mini Mental State Examination and reported the "one-leg balance" test -- where a participant was asked to stand on one leg for as long as possible -- as abnormal when the participant was unable to stand on one leg for 5 seconds or more.
Participants scoring abnormal at baseline with no improvement at 12, 18 and 24 months showed a mean adjusted cognitive decline of 9.2 points. Those scoring normal at baseline and during follow-up had a mean adjusted cognitive decline of 3.8 points.
"Our results suggested that an abnormal 'one-leg balance' test is a marker of more advanced dementia and an independent predictor of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease," senior investigator Yves Rolland of the University of Toulouse, France, said in a statement.
If the study results are confirmed by other data, Rolland said, the One Leg Balance test could be adopted in clinical practice to identify those Alzheimer's Disease patients at high risk of rapid cognitive decline.
