Although millions of older adults receive diagnoses of clinical conditions such as Alzheimer’s, milder forms of cognitive decline often are trickier to address.
Early detection and intervention among those with milder cognitive decline can effectively forestall dementia in up to 40% of cases, according to a video on BrainCheck’s website that cites a study published in The Lancet.
Although the slide from moderate cognitive decline to more serious forms of dementia is not wholly predictable, such lapses still can be dangerous, particular for older adults living alone, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention warns.
A company that produces what it calls “rapid, reliable cognitive health tech” says it has new data to back the viability of its diagnostic tool.
The BrainCheck assessment tool, called BrainCheck Assess, can be accessed on any wireless device, takes less than 15 minutes and produces a quantitative cognition “score,” the company says.
Overall, approximately 11% of older adults have subjective cognitive decline, the condition of mild memory loss and confusion that precedes dementia, the CDC states.
Although there is not necessarily a linear progression into worse cognitive states, another 10% of oolder adults have full-on dementia, and that number jumps to 35% for adults aged more than 90 years, data show.
A recent study of patient satisfaction indicated that more than 87% of users found BrainCheck’s assessments to be useful, the company announced at the Gerontological Society of America’s Annual Scientific Meeting last week in Tampa, FL.
“With dementia projected to affect 14 million Americans, early detection of cognitive impairment is paramount but remains a challenge with current clinical protocols,” Reza Hosseini Ghomi, MD, and chief medical officer at BrainCheck, said in a statement.
The company also recently released BrainCheck Screen, a pre-screening tool for cognitive decline that takes as little as three minutes to complete.
