Dementia is the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases
Dementia is one of the major causes of disability among older people. The World Health Organization (WHO) says currently more than 55 million people live with dementia worldwide and 10 million new cases will be added every year.
Dementia is a constellation of symptoms which indicate a disruption in the normal functioning of the brain. The disease is associated with decreased cognitive function.
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It is very important to know the signs of dementia in order to provide the patient adequate medical care.
A recent research study published in the Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association has found that it is possible to spot signs of brain impairment in patients as early as nine years before they receive a diagnosis for one of a number of dementia-related diseases.
What did the study find?
Researchers at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust used a UK Biobank database which contains genetic, lifestyle and health information from half a million UK participants aged 40-69.
It impairs the participants in several areas, including problem solving.
What are the early signs the research team found?
The researchers found that:
problem solving
reaction time
remembering numbers
remembering to-do activities
pair matching
was typically impaired in these individuals.
The UK Biobank collected data on reaction times, problem solving and other tests along with health and disease data. This helped the researchers to look back and check the signs that were present in the participants when the data was collected from them; this span was between 5 and 9 years prior to diagnosis.
Those who had Alzheimer's disease scored more poorly
The study found that when it came to problem solving tasks, reaction times, remembering lists of numbers, prospective memory (our ability to remember to do something later on) and pair matching those who later developed Alzheimer's disease scored more poorly compared to healthy individuals.
These individuals have had a fall in the past few months
The study also found that people who later on developed Alzheimer's disease had a fall in the last 12 months.
The chances of fall was more than twice in people who went on to develop a rare neurological condition known as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).
Poor overall health
For all conditions, including Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies, the participants showed poor health 5-9 years before when the UK Biobank had collected their data.
"The impairments were often subtle"
"When we looked back at patients' histories, it became clear that they were showing some cognitive impairment several years before their symptoms became obvious enough to prompt a diagnosis. The impairments were often subtle, but across a number of aspects of cognition," Nol Swaddiwudhipong, the first author of the research study, told a health journal.
""This is a step towards us being able to screen people who are at greatest risk -- for example, people over 50 or those who have high blood pressure or do not do enough exercise -- and intervene at an earlier stage to help them reduce their risk," Swaddiwudhipong said.