A recent issue of the journal Archives of Neurology featured a piece that discussed the warning signs of Alzheimer's disease and other kinds of dementia.
The report claimed that seniors who have difficulty accomplishing everyday tasks might be more likely to develop Alzheimer's than those who don't.
"Clearly patients with mild cognitive impairment compose a heterogeneous group, of whom not all rapidly convert to dementia," states the report. "As such, it is important to identify risk factors for progressing rapidly among individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment."
Dr. Sarah Tomaszewski Farias and her University of California colleagues studied 111 people with mild cognitive impairment.
Fifty-one of these individuals were brought in because their doctors believed their cognitive functions were at risk. The rest were recruited through community outreach. They all underwent the same examinations. Thirteen percent of those who were sent by doctors converted into dementia in a year. Only three percent of those who volunteered did the same.
Other than how they were recruited, only the degree to which the participants were already impaired had an impact on this study.
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