Dementia calculator estimates your chances of developing illness in next five years

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A new online tool can estimate your chances of developing dementia in the next five years. The Dementia Calculator, which has been created by experts at the University of Ottawa, Canada, asks you a string of questions about your lifestyle.

This includes queries about your diet, the amount of exercise you do, smoking habits, alcohol intake and health conditions to predict how at risk you are.

It also takes into account your ethnicity, stress levels, martial status, education, sense of belonging, immigration status and the number of languages you can speak.The calculator, which was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community, is aimed at people over 55-years-old.Research carried out by Alzheimer Scotland has estimated that around 90,000 people have dementia in the country.Around 3,000 of these people will be under the age of 65 years.Dementia is an umbrella term to describe loss of cognitive functioning - thinking, remembering, and reasoning - to such an extent that it interferes with a person's life.

The most common type being Alzheimer's disease, but it is not known exactly what causes dementia and there is no cure. Researchers hope that the tool can be used to help people modify their lifestyle through physical activity, promote health eating and reduce their tobacco and alcohol use.The calculator was based on data from the Statistics Canada Canadian Community Health Surveys of 75,000 people.Experts say that the calculator can be adapted to over 100 countries worldwide.