Motoric Cognitive Risk Syndrome
Motoric Cognitive Risk (MCR) syndrome is a newly described pre-clinical dementia characterised by slow walking speed in the presence of subjective memory complaints. Patients must also have preserved activities of daily living on standardised questionnaire and be free of formal dementia diagnosis.
Slow walking speed is calculated in our lab using age categories of 5-year span. Standardised values for this population are determined and those who are 1 standard deviation below the mean are classified as having 'slow gait'.
Prevalence of MCR in TILDA by Age
The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing is a nationally representative cohort study partly based in Trinity College Dublin. MCR within TILDA has been estimated at 2.3% (95% CI: 1.8 - 2.8). Application of sampling weights allows this prevalence rate to be generalised to the Irish population.
This prevalence rate is lower than many other studies of MCR to date. Strengths of the TILDA study are it's comprehensive assessment and generalisability. Consideration should given that over the duration of the study, a true representation of the incidence of MCR will be determined.
Motoric Cognitive Risk syndrome has previously demonstrated a predictive capability for dementia over and above it's individual components of slow gait speed and memory complaints.