Blood Test Helps Predict Dementia up to 25 Years in Advance, Study Suggests

The findings open the way to ‘earlier prevention strategies and more targeted monitoring,’ a researcher said, while critics caution about predicting diagnoses.

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A simple blood test opens the possibility of helping predict dementia in women up to 25 years before the onset of symptoms, according to a March 10 peer-reviewed study published in the JAMA Network Open journal.

Researchers analyzed health data of 2,766 older women recruited into the Women’s Health Initiative memory study between 1996 and 1999. The participants were aged 65 to 79 and cognitively unimpaired at the time of recruitment.