Non-Cognitive Characteristics of Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment And Errors On The Clock Drawing Test

Abstract

Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) often make qualitative errors on the Clock Drawing Test (CDT), and these errors are reported to be associated with lower scores on neuropsychological assessments. However, the association of CDT errors with non-cognitive characteristics has not been investigated in individuals with MCI to date. In this study, we explored this association in older adults with MCI who made qualitative errors on the CDT. Outpatients at a memory clinic with a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) of 0.5 (n = 193) were included. The CDT was evaluated using Cahn et al.’s method and non-cognitive characteristics were compared between participants with and without CDT errors. The non-cognitive characteristics compared included normal and maximum gait speeds, grip strength, muscle mass, and severity of white matter lesions. Participants with the CDT error type of conceptual deficit (CD; n = 58) had significantly slower normal and maximum gait speeds, and multiple logistic regression analysis adjusted for age and sex revealed CD was significantly associated with the slowest tertile of maximum gait speed. No other non-cognitive characteristics were significantly associated with errors on the CDT.