Beta Amyloid Peptide: Research Paper : Decline in cognitively complex everyday activities accelerates along the Alzheimer's disease continuum

Decline in cognitively complex everyday activities accelerates along the Alzheimer's disease continuum

Abstract

Background: Impairment in daily functioning is a clinical hallmark of dementia. Difficulties with "instrumental activities of daily living" (IADL) seem to increase gradually over the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD), before dementia onset. However, it is currently not well established how difficulties develop along the preclinical and prodromal stages of AD. We aimed to investigate the trajectories of decline in IADL performance, as reported by a study partner, along the early stages of AD.

Methods: In a longitudinal multicenter study, combining data from community-based and memory clinic cohorts, we included 1555 individuals (mean age 72.5 ± 7.8 years; 50% female) based on availability of amyloid biomarkers, longitudinal IADL data, and clinical information at baseline. Median follow-up duration was 2.1 years. All amyloid-positive participants (n = 982) were classified into the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) clinical stages ranging from preclinical AD (1) to overt dementia (4+). Cognitively normal amyloid-negative individuals (n = 573) served as a comparison group. The total scores of three study-partner reported IADL questionnaires were standardized.

Results: The rate of decline in cognitively normal (stage 1) individuals with and without abnormal amyloid did not differ (p = .453). However, from stage 2 onwards, decline was significantly faster in individuals on the AD continuum (B [95%CI] = - 0.32 [- 0.55, - 0.09], p = .007). The rate of decline increased with each successive stage: one standard deviation (SD) unit per year in stage 3 (- 1.06 [- 1.27, - 0.85], p < .001) and nearly two SD units per year in stage 4+ (1.93 [- 2.19, - 1.67], p < .001). Overall, results were similar between community-based and memory clinic study cohorts.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that the rate of functional decline accelerates along the AD continuum, as shown by steeper rates of decline in each successive NIA-AA clinical stage. These results imply that incremental changes in function are a meaningful measure for early disease monitoring. Combined with the low-cost assessment, this advocates the use of these functional questionnaires for capturing the effects of early AD-related cognitive decline on daily life.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; clinical stages; functional impairment; instrumental activities of daily living.

Conflict of interest statement

MAD, RJJ, SETF, REA, RFB, PJV, DMR, KAJ, MJP, AS, ND, JRG, BNMB, and RAS report no disclosures relevant to this manuscript. SAMS is supported by grants from JPND and Zon-MW and has provided consultancy services in the past 2 years for Nutricia and Takeda. All funds were paid to her institution. GAM has received research salary support from Eisai Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, Novartis, and Genentech. Additionally, GAM has served as a consultant for Grifols Shared Services North America, Inc., Eisai Inc., and Pfizer. WMF holds the Pasman chair. CET received grants from the European Commission, the Dutch Research Council (ZonMW), Association of Frontotemporal Dementia/Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, The Weston Brain Institute, Alzheimer Nederland. CET has functioned in advisory boards of Roche, received non-financial support in the form of research consumables from ADxNeurosciences and Euroimmun, performed contract research, or received grants from Probiodrug, Biogen, Esai, Toyama, Janssen prevention center, Boehringer, AxonNeurosciences, EIP farma, PeopleBio, and Roche. KVP has served as a paid consultant for Biogen.

This article originally appeared in the "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33121534/" and has their copyrights. We do not claim copyright on the content. This information is for research purposes only. This Blog is made available by publishers for educational purposes only as well as to give you general information and a general understanding , not to provide specific advice. By using this blog site you understand that there is no client relationship between you and the Blog publisher. The Blog should not be used as a substitute for competent research advice.