New Cognitive Screening Tool Can Help Predict One’s Risk for Dementia

Dementia can be due to aging or pathological, and a new tool has been developed to help one gauge their risk for this condition.

New Cognitive Screening Tool for Dementia

Australian researchers developed a new cognitive screening tool called the McCusker Subjective Cognitive Impairment Inventory. It gauges six critical aspects of brain function and captures people's concerns about their current mental capacity.

This self-reported assessment frequently acts as a precursor to dementia or deteriorating cognitive function, or at the very least, puts people in a higher risk category so that their health can be constantly followed.

Principal author and clinical psychologist Hamid Sohrabi of Western Australia's Murdoch University noted that discovering one's risk for dementia could help one prepare for it or slow down its progress.

Despite its potential, academics and clinicians cannot agree on whether people's self-reports of cognitive issues are reliable. Because it's a self-evaluation, people can be reluctant to acknowledge memory or speech changes they've experienced, or if the disease has advanced too far, they might not even be aware of them.

The overall mental loss associated with "normal" aging is another factor that a questionnaire would need to separate dementia from. However, a recent assessment found that it is tolerably accurate.

Additionally, physicians may find it easier to identify small changes requiring more attention if they use a standardized framework that has been tested on many individuals and evaluates various cognitive abilities.

Factors That Increase One's Risk for Dementia

Dementia is a broad phrase for impaired memory, thinking, or decision-making that interferes with doing daily tasks rather than a specific condition. In terms of dementia, Alzheimer's disease is the most prevalent. Dementia is not a normal aspect of aging, even though it primarily affects older persons.

Various things may increase one's risk of dementia. One study claims that irregular sleep patterns are among them.

Those with highly erratic sleep patterns had a much-increased chance of developing dementia than people with an average sleep regularity score. However, those who slept a lot did not experience a reduction in this risk.

Matthew Pase, an Australian professor and dementia researcher at Monash University, said that rather than requiring very high levels of sleep regularity, those with irregular sleep may need to improve their sleep regularity to prevent dementia.

Another study claimed that a lack of oral hygiene could also result in dementia. The study involved 28,000 chronic gum disease patients for over 10 years. The researchers discovered that the sample had a 1.7-fold increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Scientists have even found evidence of toxins generated by P. gingivalis in the brains of deceased Alzheimer's patients. These poisons are thought to potentially enter the brain through the blood and eventually harm its structural integrity.

Dementia can also be alcohol-induced, such as Wendy Williams' case. The TV personality's son, Kevin, confirmed that her doctors told them alcohol had already affected Williams' "headspace and her brain."

Williams struggled with alcohol addiction for years. Individuals with alcohol-related dementia have difficulty performing daily duties. They may also experience memory loss and struggle with reasoning.

Check out more news and information on Dementia in Science Times.