Frailty Can Signal Dementia Before Any Other Symptoms

Most dementia is diagnosed late – about 3.5 years after symptoms begin.

That can pose problems for the patient, because the sooner dementia is diagnosed and addressed, the better outcomes tend to be.

One of the hurdles here, however, is that there’s no single test that confirms dementia.

And we usually only treat it once symptoms like significant memory loss begin, by which point the processes involved in the development of the condition are already well underway.

But a new paper suggests that a physical sign – frailty – could be key to early diagnosis.

A paper published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry looked at 24 years’ worth of data from 1,600 participants involved in America’s Memory and Ageing Project.

Researchers found that the link between frailty and the later development of dementia was consistent among the group, and seemed especially among men.

Dr David Ward, who co-wrote the study, said: “Frailty has traditionally been linked to neurodegenerative conditions like dementia, but instead of just being a consequence of ageing or declining health, it appears to play its own role in shaping how dementia develops and is diagnosed.

“Our findings show older adults living with frailty are diagnosed with dementia two to three years earlier than those who are less frail.”

Significantly, their data show that those who were frail but had no brain-based signs of dementia developed the condition five to six years earlier.

That’s unexpected – you’d think people with fewer brain symptoms would get the condition later.

Not so in the case of those considered frail, though, this research suggests.

And interestingly, those who carried the gene APOE ε4, which is linked to higher dementia risk, seemed to experience the same early frailty-related dementia onset as those without it.

Maybe, Dr Ward suggested.

“The encouraging message is that frailty is often preventable and treatable.

“Regular exercise – especially strength training – can delay, reduce, and in some cases improve frailty, particularly when combined with good nutrition and social engagement.”

He added that if medical experts monitor and track frailty, there “may be opportunities to delay dementia progression and improve outcomes”.

However, this wasn’t proven in the study: it just found a link.