Currently submitted to: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Sep 18, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Sep 22, 2026 - Nov 17, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
The Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases (EDoN) Initiative: protocol for a meta-cohort study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Conventional diagnostic tests for dementia are invasive, expensive, and/or not scalable. Blood-based biomarkers are beginning to enter clinical practice but are not yet widely available, and do not currently provide differential-diagnostic information about non-Alzheimer’s disease pathologies. The Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases (EDoN) Initiative is investigating the potential utility of digital measures to support the early detection of dementia at scale.
Objective:
The ultimate objective is to evaluate the utility of the included wearables/apps as early detection markers for dementia. This will be achieved by analyzing relationships between wearables/apps and dementia outcomes, including both hard endpoints (i.e., clinical progression) as well as surrogate markers (e.g., cognitive decline).
Methods:
Four international cohorts (UK, Australia, USA) collected longitudinal digital, clinical and biomarker data from healthy controls and people at elevated risk of cognitive decline. Participants used ≥2 of the following wearables/apps: electroencephalographic sleep headband, wrist-worn activity tracker, cognitive testing smartphone app, and/or passive smartphone monitoring app.
Results:
Across the four cohorts, 436 individuals were enrolled, including 149 (34%) healthy controls, 166 (38%) patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD), 114 (26%) patients with mild cognitive impairment, and 7 (2%) patients with very mild dementia. Fifty participants (11%) withdrew during the study, while 386 (89%) participants completed the study.
Conclusions:
The harmonized EDoN data will be made available for sharing via a cloud-based trusted research environment, driving progress in the field.
Citation
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