Background
A word list recall test was administered to subjects ages 48‐100 for the purposes of prescreening for Alzheimer’s research. The test involved the presentation of 10 words with an immediate recall task, a reviewed recall task, and a delayed recall task.
Method
The test was administered to 3612 subjects who were divided into three groups based on cognitive scores: Healthy Memory (n=2341), MCI (n=1066), and Impaired (n=205). Number of intrusions were analyzed for each of the immediate recall task (Healthy=125, MCI=83, Impaired=25), reviewed recall task (Healthy=68, MCI=81, Impaired=28), and delayed recall task (Healthy=114, MCI=117, Impaired=25). Repetition of intrusions were compared in the delayed recall task.
Results
The MCI group was more statistically likely to have intrusions than the healthy group (tcrit=1.65,tstat=6.70) and the impaired group was more likely to have intrusions than the MCI group (tcrit=1.65, tstat=1.70). On the delayed task, 31.68% of the healthy subjects repeated intrusions from their immediate or reviewed recall trials, while 40.17% of the MCI subjects repeated intrusions from their earlier recall trials. In the Impaired group, 44% of the intrusions were novel words that were not recalled during the immediate or review sessions. Rate of intrusions was also analyzed between the immediate and reviewed recall, with the finding that intrusions drop from 5.33% to 2.90% in the Healthy group, while rate of intrusions remains constant with the MCI group (7.79% and 7.60%) and the Impaired group (12.20% and 13.66%).
Conclusion
These findings indicate that subjects with healthy memory have a lower instance of repeating intrusions after the second presentation (review) of the word list than subjects with mild cognitive impairment. It may be inferred that subjects with healthy memory are better able to recognize, after review, that their initial intrusion was not accurate and to store this information for the delayed trial. MCI subjects not only had a higher incidence of including intrusions following the review, they also had a higher instance of repeating earlier intrusions during delayed recall than the healthy memory or the impaired groups.
Background
Due to mandated quarantine and social distancing in 2020, Florida residents temporarily ceased social activities outside the home, and modified activities of daily life that required leaving the home. Subjects continued to present for clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease. The purpose of this data review is to determine the effect of social isolation on orientation to time, due to site‐level concerns that the mandated social isolation may have a negative impact on orientation scores for subjects reporting mild memory concerns.
Method
Data was collected for 68 subjects reporting mild memory concerns (not meeting diagnostic criteria for dementia). Orientation responses for 52 subjects evaluated prior to the social distancing mandate (January 1 – March 26, 2020), and 16 subjects evaluated post‐implementation of social distancing (April 1‐May22), were recorded for the following items: Year, Month, Date, Day of the Week. All subjects in the post‐implementation group reported that they were mostly staying home, and not participating in their typical social activities outside of the home. The means of the two groups were compared across all orientation domains.
Result
A t‐test analysis reveals that following the social distancing mandate, subject performance on measures of orientation did significantly decline, overall. The mean of the pre‐social distancing group for the 4 orientation items was 3.7. The mean of the post‐social distancing group for the 4 orientation items was 3.1. (t crit = 1.67 , t stat = 2.17 , p= 0.01). Responses significantly affected by post‐social distancing were specific to Day and Date. (Correct responses for Day: 87% pre‐quarantine, 63% post‐quarantine; correct responses for Date: 90% pre‐quarantine, 69% post quarantine). Accurate Year and Month responses appeared to be consistent across both groups.
Conclusion
Consistent with site‐level concerns that social isolation subsequent to Covid‐19 distancing guidelines could negatively impact orientation scores for subjects reporting mild memory concerns, the data collected and analyzed from January through May 2020 indicates a slight but significant decline in orientation scores post‐quarantine. Specifically, orientation to weekday and date appears to be most affected by the change in lifestyle and activities of daily living engaged in outside of the home.
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