Abstract
Extensive epidemiological evidence supports interrelationships between mobility and cognition in aging. However, until recently, clinicians and researchers have evaluated and treated cognitive and mobility dysfunction in older individuals as separate problems. This approach has led to gaps in our understanding of the cognitive-motor interactions and of the potential underlying mechanisms that can affect pathways to disability in aging. Thinking and moving share behavioral and etiological factors that can drive new insights into prevention and treatment. Mechanistically, brain networks, which control movement, overlap with networks involved in cognitive performance. Therefore, there is a need of a common framework among clinician and researchers to i) better characterize the relationship between cognitive and motor changes with aging, comorbidities and neurodegeneration, ii) standardize clinical and research methodologies to measures and assess mobility and cognition in older adults iii) agree upon a “core of set” of measures to assess cognitive-mobility interaction. The Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration and Aging is a Pan-Canadian Initiative funded by Canadian Institute of Health and Research (CIHR), which aims to better understand neurodegenerative process in aging. As part of this initiative, the “Gait and Cognition team” has established by consensus a set of common measurements to assess motor-cognitive interactions. Results of the Delphi process carried on in during 2015 and the consensus meeting which involved 15 researchers from eight lead centers in Canada will be presented with the “core-set” and “minimum set” of measures selected. Having common and standardized measures will positively contribute to the prevention, management, and rehabilitation of the cognitive and mobility disability in older adults.