Prevalence and Factors Associated with Motoric Cognitive Risk Syndrome in Community-dwelling Older Chinese: a Cross-sectional Study

Background And Purpose: A recently proposed pre-dementia syndrome, motoric cognitive risk (MCR) syndrome, is characterized by cognitive complaints and slow gait, and increases the risk of dementia and mortality. The aim of the present study was to explore the prevalence of and factors associated with MCR syndrome in elderly community-dwelling Chinese subjects.

Methods: The Ningbo Community Study on Aging recruited 953 Chinese community-dwelling participants aged ≥ 65 years from November 2016 to March 2017. Handgrip, Five-Times-Sit-to-Stand (FTSS) test time and body composition, as well as comprehensive geriatric evaluation, were measured as potentially independent factors associated with MCR syndrome.

Results: The prevalence of MCR syndrome was 12.8% in men and 12.6% in women, and high prevalence of MCR syndrome was not associated with age or sex. Multiple logistic regression analysis by sex showed that a 1-SD increase in FTSS test time in males and females was associated with 45% (95% confidence intervals, 19-76; P < 0.01) and 20% (95% confidence intervals, 9-33; P < 0.01) higher risk of having MCR syndrome, respectively, whereas handgrip strength was inversely correlated with MCR syndrome in males [odds ratio (OR), 0.91; P = 0.02] but not females (P = 0.06). Moreover, the relationship of arm fat mass and MCR syndrome was statistically significant in both sexes (OR, 1.69-1.77), but leg fat mass was only associated with MCR syndrome (OR, 1.56; P = 0.02) in men.

Conclusions: Handgrip, FTSS test time and body composition were associated in a sex-specific manner with MCR syndrome in elderly community-dwelling Chinese subjects. Our results on MCR syndrome are novel and should be considered as important information in future studies.