Researchers have developed two easy tests that can help predict whether a senior citizen is at a higher risk of developing dementia, according to the Canadian Press.
Published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the news organization said the study analyzed the effect of standard neurocognitive tests on 1,500 patients aged 65 and older. Researchers found that the delayed word recall test, where patients are asked to remember as many words as possible from a list of 15 words, and another experiment where they were asked to match numbers to corresponding symbols, were the most effective at determining the risk of dementia.
Every word that a subject remembered on the memory test decreased the risk of developing dementia by 19 percent, while every symbol they matched decreased it by 5 percent.
“Poor performance on those two tests – obviously not really bad performance, but lower than what you would expect – would indicate their risk of developing dementia 10 years later,” Mary Tierney, the study’s principal investigator, told the Canadian Press.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common form of dementia, and that health problems that deteriorate the condition of the heart or blood vessels can increase an individual’s risk for developing the condition.
While Alzheimer’s disease is considered a pre-existing medical condition by most insurers and life insurance companies will deny coverage to someone with early-to-late stage Alzheimer’s disease, Medicare, Medigap, some health insurance companies, disability insurance and long-term care insurance companies (including private coverage and Social Security Disability Income coverage) can help families pay for the cost of treatment and care of a loved one with Alzheimer’s.
