Dementia cannot be cured but can be prevented in about a third of cases through lifestyle factors like physical activity, healthy eating, reducing alcohol and tobacco use, and managing conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure.
‘Online calculator that empowers individuals over the age of 55 years to better understand the health of their brain and how they can reduce their risk of being diagnosed with dementia in the next five years has been devised by scientists. This may help in the early prevention of any equitable strategies.’
The study team formulized the dementia calculator based on the survey data from over 75,000 Ontarians.
“What sets this dementia risk calculator apart is that you don’t need to visit a doctor for any tests. People already have all the information they need to complete the calculator in the comfort of their home,” says Dr. Stacey Fisher, the lead author of the study who performed the research largely in Ottawa while she was a Ph.D. student and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto and Public Health Ontario.
The Online Calculator
The factors included in the Dementia Population Risk Tool (DemPoRT) are:
- Age
- Smoking status and lifetime exposure
- Alcohol consumption
- Physical activity
- Stress
- Diet
- Sense of belonging
- Ethnicity
- Immigration status
- Socioeconomic status of the neighbourhood
- Education
- Activities where assistance is needed
- Marital status
- Number of languages spoken
- Health conditions
The calculator is available at projectbiglife.ca. and can be used by individuals to assess their dementia risk and help them modify their lifestyle. The researchers also have a goal for policymakers to use this algorithm to do the same thing for the general population.
Through this research, the team has developed the first predictive tool designed to predict dementia at a population level. It can predict the number of new cases in the community, identify higher-risk populations, inform dementia prevention strategies, and will be used to support Canada’s national dementia strategy.
“This tool will give people who fill it out clues to what they can do to reduce their personal risk of dement. The COVID-19 pandemic has also made it clear that sociodemographic variables like ethnicity and neighbourhood play a major role in our health. It was important to include those variables in the tool so policy makers can understand how different populations are impacted by dementia, and help ensure that any prevention strategies are equitable,” says Dr. Peter Tanuseputro, senior author of the study, and scientist at The Ottawa Hospital, investigator at the Bruyre Research Institute, an adjunct scientist at ICES and assistant professor at the University of Ottawa.
Source: Medindia
