Count yourself
Can a calculator predict the risk of developing dementia?
Anna Yudina, "Scientific Russia"
Canadian researchers from the Ottawa Hospital, the University of Ottawa, the Bruyer Research Institute and ICES have created and tested an online calculator that allows people over 55 to better understand the state of their brain and ways to reduce the risk of getting a dementia diagnosis in the next five years, according to a press release Can a calculator predict your risk of dementia?
Article by Fisher et al. Development and validation of a predictive algorithm for risk of dementia in the community setting is published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, and a calculator (and several others) are available on the website projectbiglife.ca .
Dementia is a general term for memory loss and other thinking abilities serious enough to interfere with everyday life. Every year, 76,000 new cases of dementia are diagnosed in Canada, and their number is expected to grow as the population ages.
There is no cure or cure for dementia. However, about a third of dementia cases can be prevented by lifestyle factors such as physical activity, a healthy diet, reducing alcohol and tobacco use, and treating conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
The researchers based the dementia calculator on survey data from more than 75,000 Ontario residents.
"What makes this dementia risk calculator different is that you don't have to visit a doctor for any tests," said Dr. Stacy Fisher, lead author of the study, who conducted the study primarily in Ottawa when she was a graduate student under Dr. Doug Manuel and Dr. Peter Tanuseputro at the Ottawa Hospital. "People already have all the information they need to fill out a calculator without leaving home." Dr. Fischer is currently a research associate at the University of Toronto and the Ontario Department of Public Health.
Factors in the Dementia Risk Assessment Tool (DemPoRT):
- Age
- Smoking status and lifetime impact
- Alcohol consumption
- Physical activity
- Stress
- Diet
- A sense of belonging
- Ethnicity
- Immigration status
- Socio-economic status of the district
- Education
- Activities in which assistance is required
- Marital status
- Number of languages spoken
- Health status
The calculator can be used by people to assess the risk of dementia and help them change their lifestyle. The researchers also have a goal for politicians to use this algorithm to do the same for the general population.
Thanks to this study, the team developed the first predictive tool designed to predict dementia at the population level. It can predict the number of new cases in the community, identify high-risk groups, inform dementia prevention strategies, and will be used to support Canada's national dementia strategy. Using regularly collected health data and surveys, public health experts receive all the information necessary to use the algorithm.
"This tool will give people an idea of what they can do to reduce their personal risk of developing dementia," said Dr. Peter Tanuseputro, senior author of the study and a scientist at the Ottawa Hospital, a researcher at the Bruyere Research Institute, an ICES researcher and an associate professor at the University of Ottawa. – The COVID-19 pandemic has also shown that socio-demographic variables, such as ethnicity and area of residence, play an important role in our health. It was important to include these variables in the tool so that policy makers could understand how different populations are affected by dementia and help ensure that any preventive strategies are fair."
The Dementia Calculator will be added to the list of existing calculators in Project Big Life that will help Canadians estimate their life expectancy based on habits and lifestyle.
The calculator was based on data from Statistics Canada's Canadian Community Health Surveys conducted by ICES. It is currently designed for use in Canada, but can be adapted for any of the 100 countries in the world that collect health survey data.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru