Association of motoric cognitive risk syndrome with falls in older adults: findings from three longitudinal studies.

BACKGROUND

Falls pose a significant threat to older adults' health, affecting one-third of individuals aged over 65 annually and resulting in severe injuries despite numerous screening tools. While motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR) is established as a dementia risk factor, its utility as a fall prediction tool remains unclear due to inconsistent findings across populations. This study therefore aims to elucidate the associations between motoric cognitive risk syndrome and falls among older adults.

METHODS

Participants aged ≥ 60 years were selected from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA), the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), and the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) were assessed based on participants' responses to standardized questionnaire items. Slow gait was defined as a gait speed of more than one standard deviation below the age- and gender-specific mean values. MCR was diagnosed when both SCC and slow gait were present. Outcomes for investigation included falls, multiple falls, and fall-related injuries. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the longitudinal association between MCR, its components, and the occurrence of falls over the following four years.

RESULTS

Ultimately, 10,373 participants were included in the analysis. After adjusting for covariates, MCR was associated with an increased risk of falls over the next four years, with relative increases of 60.0%, 50.5%, and 34.1% observed in the ELSA, HRS, and CHARLS cohorts, respectively. MCR was also linked to an elevated risk of multiple falls, although no significant association was found with fall-related injuries.In the fully adjusted models, slow gait alone did not show an independent association across all cohorts. Only MCR emerged as a significant and stable predictor of future falls, while further research is needed to clarify the role of SCC.

CONCLUSIONS

This large-scale prospective study found that MCR significantly predicts falls in older adults, highlighting its potential as a clinically useful screening tool integrating cognitive and motor parameters for improved fall risk identification.