Predicting mild cognitive impairment among Chinese older adults: a longitudinal study based on long short-term memory networks and machine learning

BACKGROUND: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitory yet reversible stage of dementia. Systematic, scientific and population-wide early screening system for MCI is lacking. This study aimed to construct prediction models using longitudinal data to identify potential MCI patients and explore its critical features among Chinese older adults. METHODS: A total of 2,128 participants were selected from wave 5–8 of Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Study. Cognitive function was measured using the Chinese version of Mini-Mental State Examination. Long- short-term memory (LSTM) and three machine learning techniques, including 8 sociodemographic features and 12 health behavior and health status features, were used to predict individual risk of MCI in the next year. Performances of prediction models were evaluated through receiver operating curve and decision curve analysis. The importance of predictors in prediction models were explored using Shapley Additive explanation (SHAP) model. RESULTS: The area under the curve values of three models were around 0.90 and decision curve analysis indicated that the net benefit of XGboost and Random Forest were approximate when threshold is lower than 0.8. SHAP models showed that age, education, respiratory disease, gastrointestinal ulcer and self-rated health are the five most important predictors of MCI. CONCLUSION: This screening method of MCI, combining LSTM and machine learning, successfully predicted the risk of MCI using longitudinal datasets, and enables health care providers to implement early intervention to delay the process from MCI to dementia, reducing the incidence and treatment cost of dementia ultimately.