[P2–287]: WHAT DOES THE SYMPTOM OF MISPLACING OBJECTS MEAN IN PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA? FINDINGS FROM AN ONLINE TRACKING TOOL
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The internet allows people with dementia/caregivers to identify and track common and troubling symptoms such as misplacing objects. Misplacing objects might even be an early sign of dementia progression. Here we use an online tracking tool to explore misplacing objects in relation to dementia type and stage in an internet-based sample of patients and their caregivers. Our goals were to determine whether it is an early sign of disease and whether the nature of misplacing objects changes as disease progresses. Study participants were recruited from users of the Dementia SymptomGuide™, an online tracking tool. We qualitatively analyzed the symptom descriptors to develop a typology of misplacing objects. Then, we analyzed the pattern of misplacing objects and its types in relation to other symptoms and dementia stage among respondents who targeted at least three symptoms for monitoring. Dementia cause was identified from users who reported a dementia diagnosis and was staged, from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) to Severe, using a validated algorithm. Of 12487 site users, 6206 tracked 3+ symptoms, of whom 43.8% (2717) identified misplacing objects. Compared to those in whom it was not targeted, those with misplacing objects more often had mild dementia (n=1725; 63.5% vs n=1282 36.7%, p=0.001). Fewer had frontotemporal dementia (9.6% vs.17.1%, p=0.001). Three types were identified: “lost & found” (objects simply mislaid, selected in 96.8%), “odd places” (31.0%), and “hidden away” (42.2%). “Odd places” increased with dementia severity (383/2097; 18.3% MCI-Mild vs 460/620; 74.2% Moderate-Severe, p<0.001), as did “hidden away” (591/2097; 28.2% MCI-Mild vs 556/620; 89.7% Moderate-Severe, p<0.001). Misplacing objects was also associated with inattention (OR 2.83, 95% CI: 2.65–3.02) and verbal repetition (2.21, 2.10–2.32). We found that misplacing objects is often tracked in MCI-Mild dementia, possibly reflecting it being an early sign. As disease progresses, misplacing more often reflects odd placement or hiding of objects than simple loss. Understanding whether delay in onset of misplacing objects might reflect clinically important disease modification after intervention is motivating further inquiries by our group.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.008 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".