Can reading ability predict cognitive changes?

What is it about?

The ability to read irregularly spelled words is commonly used to estimate premorbid intelligence, as this ability has been thought to be resistant to early effects of neurodegenerative disorders. Alzheimer's Disease patients have worse performance on this test at the start of time, and decline more rapidly over time.

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Why is it important?

This study found that irregularly spelled word-reading ability, commonly used to estimate an individual’s cognitive function prior to onset of the dementia seen in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is much more adversely affected by dementia than previously thought. This is important, as without this information, clinicians may be more likely to underdiagnose dementia in AD. We advise caution in using this approach and provide guidance for interpreting results in the context of other, demographics-based approaches.