Over five million Americans and an estimated 26 million people globally live with the fatal brain disease known as Alzheimer’s. According to leading health and insurance experts the disease progressively destroys brain cells and victims suffer from memory problems and difficulties with thought processes.
Alzheimer’s disease is now the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and accounts for 50 to 70 percent of all dementia cases. Costs are considered long-term health care and thus are generally not covered by traditional medical or health insurance policies. The disease has no known cure, nor is any affective treatment currently available, although scientists continue to pursue ways to treat delay or even prevent its onset.
According to a report, researchers have now developed a checklist that can accurately predict the risk of people over 65 for developing Alzheimer's disease. Over a six-year period, the checklist of risk factors for the disease predicted over half of the cases of dementia in the group of seniors who were followed by the researchers.
Until now, there have been available ways to predict dementia two decades in the future among middle-aged adults, yet no system to predict onset of the disease later in life. The full report on the study was published in the journal Neurology.
The diagnostic measurement tool is composed of a 15-point scale that looks at risk factors for the development of Alzheimer's including advanced age, diminished thinking skills, the presence of the ApoE4 gene, and abnormal MRI findings as well as thicker carotid artery measurements and other vascular indications. Other risk factors included in the index are whether not a patient is underweight, has a history of heart bypass surgery, abstains from alcohol use, or is slow in performing physical tasks such as buttoning a shirt. People scoring 8 or higher on the test are considered to be at high risk of developing dementia within the next six years.
A leading health insurance expert noted that the new risk index could be very important both for research and for people at risk of developing dementia and their families. Having a tool that is able of predicting the risk of developing Alzheimer's could assist doctors in following patients as well as help drug makers develop medications for the treatment of early stages of this devastating disease.
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