Mass memory tests 'track dementia risk'

A new trial, funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), will invite a third of a million people to take part in the world's largest cognitive function test, the BBC reports. The study will aim to analyse what factors could increase the patient's risk of developing dementia in later years.

The participants, who will already be part of the UK Biobank and have submitted DNA, blood and urine samples, as well as answering questions about their lifestyle, health and diet over the past decade. During the study, they will be asked to carry out a number of memory and reasoning tests online along with a series of computer-based puzzles.

Some of the tests have been conducted before and will be compared to the most recent tests results, which can now be completed online at home.

Dr John Gallacher, an epidemiologist at Cardiff University, who helped devise the tests told the British broadcaster: "Most people will have just minute falls in their test results since they did them last time but even this might help us predict who will develop dementia in the future."

Apart from the tests, researchers will also look into smoking, diet and exercise of all the participants, who were all between 40 and 69 years old when the tests started. They will try and determine whether or not these lifestyle factors have a great impact on the patient's risk of developing dementia.

UK Biobank is the world's biggest and most detailed biomedical resource and aims to develop new treatments for conditions. The information about each volunteer is made anonymous but is open to researchers in any field, as long as they provide their research feedback.

However, Dr Gallacher stressed that it was not a dementia test but a pre-emptive test to discover what factors could increase the risk of developing the condition, by judging their cognitive function before they develop it.

Dr Gallacher added: "If we could delay the onset of dementia by five years that would halve the number of people with the condition, which would be massive".