Nearly 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia and fifth-leading cause of death for those 65 and older in 2021. While there is no cure for the disease, new research published in PLOS One shows there are four overwhelmingly common factors that signal a high risk of cognitive decline, information that could be used to help predict Alzheimer’s. "Even in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, cognitive deterioration was best predicted by a combination of patients' demographic, somatic, and functional variables," the researchers write. Here are the four key factors pinpointed in the study.
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Factor #1: Being Older
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Age is the most significant risk factor for Alzheimer's. “Most people with Alzheimer's develop the disease when they are 65 or older, with less than 10% of cases occurring before then,” says the National Institute on Aging. “As a person ages past 65, their risk of Alzheimer's increases. About one in 13 people age 65 to 84 and one in three people 85 and older are living with Alzheimer’s.”
Factor #2: Being Female
ShutterstockAlmost two thirds of people with Alzheimer’s are women. “Of the nearly 7 million people age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s in the United States, nearly 4 million are women,” says the Alzheimer’s Association. “Women in their 60s are about twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's during the rest of their lives as they are to develop breast cancer. A woman's estimated lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer's at age 65 is 1 in 5. There are a number of potential biological and social reasons why more women than men have Alzheimer’s or other dementias. The prevailing view has been that this discrepancy is due to the fact that women live longer than men on average, and older age is the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Researchers are now questioning whether the risk of Alzheimer’s could actually be higher for women at any given age due to biological or genetic variations or differences in life experiences.”
Factor #3: Difficulty with Daily Activities
iStockDifficulty with basic everyday tasks is one of the first warning signs of Alzheimer’s.“The first symptoms of Alzheimer’s vary from person to person,” says the National Institute on Aging. “For many, decline in nonmemory aspects of cognition, such as word finding, vision/spatial issues, and impaired reasoning or judgment may signal the very early stages of the disease. As Alzheimer’s worsens, people experience greater memory loss and other cognitive difficulties. Problems can include wandering and getting lost, trouble handling money and paying bills, repeating questions, taking longer to complete normal daily tasks, and personality and behavior changes. People are often diagnosed in this stage.”
#4: History of Atrial Fibrillation
Improved heart healthiStockA history of atrial fibrillation is strongly associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s. “Epidemiological evidence has suggested a link between AFib and dementia,” says Peter J Stein, PhD, DC. “Researchers have also noted risk factors they have in common, such as obesity and diabetes; and have proposed causal mechanisms that might link AFib to dementia. However, it has not been directly studied whether age of AFib onset is associated with the risk of developing dementia.”
RELATED: 45 Early Signs of Alzheimer's.
Genetic Factors
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Other factors also impact Alzheimer’s—for example, genetics. “There are certain genes that may be passed down (inherited) from a parent that can affect a person’s chances of getting Alzheimer’s,” says the Alzheimer’s Society UK. “There are two types of these genes: ‘familial’ genes and ‘risk’ genes. Familial genes will definitely cause Alzheimer’s if they are passed down from a parent to a child. Out of 1000 people who have Alzheimer’s, less than ten of those people will have it because of a familial gene. Risk genes increase a person’s chances of developing Alzheimer’s. They are much more common than familial genes. However, unlike familial genes, risk genes do not always cause a person to develop the condition. Most of them only slightly increase a person’s risk.”
Smoking and Other Lifestyle Factors
8 | Ashtrays are required on airplanes even though you can't smoke.iStockCertain lifestyle factors can increase the risk of getting Alzheimer’s. “Several recent studies have found that smoking significantly increases the risk of mental decline and dementia,” says Stanford Medicine. “People who smoke have a higher risk of atherosclerosis and other types of vascular disease, which may be the underlying causes for the increased dementia risk. Studies also have found that drinking large amounts of alcohol appears to increase the risk of dementia. However, other studies have suggested that people who drink moderately have a lower risk of dementia than either those who drink heavily or those who completely abstain from drinking.”
