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Daily Record
Daily Record
Lifestyle
Sophie Law

Dementia calculator shows your risk of developing illness in next five years

This handy calculator can reveal if you are at risk of developing dementia in the next five years.

It could be useful to help you make lifestyle changes now to slow down progression of the syndrome - which affects 90,000 people in Scotland, according to government figures.

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 have developed a new online calculator aimed at people over 55 which estimates how likely you are to develop dementia in the next five years.

Researchers have developed an online calculator for people over the age of 55 (Getty Images)

The calculator asks you about your diet, exercise, smoking habits, alcohol intake and health conditions to predict how at risk you are.

It also takes into account ethnicity, stress, marital status, education, sense of belonging, immigration status and number of languages spoken.

Researchers say the new tool can be used by individuals to assess their dementia risk and help them modify their lifestyle through physical activity, healthy eating and reducing alcohol and tobacco use.

The new tool, developed by experts at The Ottawa Hospital, the University of Ottawa, was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community.

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 world wide.

Try out the new tool here.

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