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The number of people with dementia in Great Britain is expected to increase to 1.4 million in 2040, writes the Alzheimer Society.
The way it looks, almost a million of us have the condition (982,000).
Nevertheless, the condition is often not diagnosed. A study from 2018 showed that in older adults with probably dementia 58.7%either not diagnosed (39.5%) or the diagnosis were not aware of (19.2%).
Every fourth adult with alleged dementia is waiting two years before receiving help, the NHS writes what a shame is, since “an exact and early diagnosis can have many advantages”.
No wonder Dr. Doug Brown, director of research and development at the Alzheimer Society, was fascinated by an article from 2015 in which the results of memory and cognitive tests were associated with an increased risk of dementia 18 years before the diagnosis.
“This could mean that there is a long shop window for treatment, in which we one day keep up or a slow dementia,” he said.
What were the tests?
The study published in the Neurology journal examined 2,125 participants over 18 years.
The participants, whose average age 73 were, received four memory and thinking tests at the beginning of the study, and research ended every three years.
They were also tested for clinical dementia, including the medical history of the participants, a neurological examination and 19 cognitive functional tests. These were used to diagnose dementia directly, but were separated from the cognitive function tests that the scientists defeated in order to check the memory and thinking skills of the people.
The first two of the memory and thinking tests included an examination with the name of immediate and delayed recall of the East Boston story, in which the participants were talks and asked for a short story or more to remember details (immediately afterwards). This tested their episodic memory.
Another, the symbol -digit modality test, which calls on people to link symbols with digits, tested their executive function.
The fourth, which was called a mini-mental state examination, was a 33 question form (available here). This checked their general orientation and global perception.
The average of these tests was calculated with different weighting for each exam, say the researchers.
None of the participants had dementia at the beginning of research. In the end, 21% (442 participants) developed clinical dementia.
The researchers found that the evaluation of a unit in a total of cognitive tests 13 and 18 years before the end of the study was associated with an 85% higher risk of developing dementia.
“While this risk is lower than the same unit, which is measured the year before dementia assessment, the observation is that the test results achieve lower test results 13 to 18 years later, how subtle decline in cognitive function influences the future risk,” said the study author Dr. Kumar B Rajan.
Does the evaluation of these tests definitely mean that I get dementia?
No, not definitely. This study found only a connection and no cause.
Nevertheless, like Dr. Brown of the Alzheimer Society said, “Dementia often causes changes in the brain before the symptoms become visible. This study shows that there may be subtle references to Alzheimer’s disease in thinking and memory up to 18 years before a formal diagnosis.”
And Dr. Rajan told Rush University, which was involved in the study: “The changes in thinking and memory, the obvious symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease precede, begin decades ago.
“Efforts to successfully prevent the disease can certainly require a better understanding of these processes near the middle age.”
