Schäfer, S., Mallick, E., Schwed, L., König, A., Zhao, J., Linz, N., Bodin, T. H., Skoog, J., Possemis, N., ter Huurne, D., Zettergren, A., Kern, S., Sacuiu, S., Ramakers, I., Skoog, I., & Tröger, J. (2023). Screening for Mild Cognitive Impairment Using a Machine Learning Classifier and the Remote Speech Biomarker for Cognition: Evidence from Two Clinically Relevant Cohorts. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 91(3), 1165–1171. doi:10.3233/JAD-220762
Abstract
Background:
Modern prodromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) clinical trials might extend outreach to a general population, causing high screen-out rates and thereby increasing study time and costs. Thus, screening tools that cost-effectively detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at scale are needed.
Objective:
Develop a screening algorithm that can differentiate between healthy and MCI participants in different clinically relevant populations.
Methods:
Two screening algorithms based on the remote ki:e speech biomarker for cognition (ki:e SB-C) were designed on a Dutch memory clinic cohort (N = 121) and a Swedish birth cohort (N = 404). MCI classification was each evaluated on the training cohort as well as on the unrelated validation cohort.
Results:
The algorithms achieved a performance of AUC 0.73 and AUC 0.77 in the respective training cohorts and AUC 0.81 in the unseen validation cohorts.
Conclusion:
The results indicate that a ki:e SB-C based algorithm robustly detects MCI across different cohorts and languages, which has the potential to make current trials more efficient and improve future primary health care.