Researchers Develop Alzheimer’s At-Risk Checklist

Medical researchers have developed a checklist they say can predict with relative certainty whether a person age 65 or over is at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease in the next six years.

Using risk factors such as slowed movement and brain activity, the checklist accurately predicted about half the cases of dementia that appeared in a group of elderly people who were studied for more than six years, said the researchers from the University of California, San Francisco.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, debilitating form of dementia that causes memory loss, confusion, and difficulty thinking. It affects about 5.3 million Americans and 26 million people worldwide. Patients with advanced forms of the disease are unable to function or take care of themselves.

Common Alzheimer’s Disease Factors

The checklist is a 15-point scale of some of the best known risk factors of Alzheimer’s, researchers said. Advanced age, having the ApoE4 gene, poor scores on thinking tests, and other factors are included.

The checklist also includes lesser-known factors which may indicate Alzheimer’s, including a history of heart bypass surgery, difficulty with physical tasks such as buttoning a shirt, being underweight, and not drinking alcohol, the researchers said.

People who score eight or higher on the checklist are considered to be at high risk of developing the form of dementia within six years.

Study of Seniors Seeks Dementia Symptoms

The checklist was developed by a team of scientists who studied 3,375 people with an average age of 76 who had not been diagnosed with dementia. The study followed the patients for six years, during which time 480 of the participants developed dementia.

The researchers further examined those with dementia to determine which factors predicted those who would develop Alzheimer’s. They found that 56 percent of those with high scores on the checklist of risk factors had developed dementia in the six years. Twenty-three percent of people with moderate scores on the checklist developed dementia and just four percent with low scores did, the study says.

In all, the index correctly classified 88 percent of patients in the study, researchers said.

An Important Tool in the Fight Against Alzheimer’s

Having a tool that can accurately predict the risk of developing Alzheimer’s could help doctors better monitor certain at-risk patients and help drug companies develop medications to treat the early stages of the incurable disease, researchers said.

“This new risk index could be very important both for research and for people at risk of developing dementia and their families,” they said in a statement accompanying the study results.

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