An evaluation of an online assessment tool designed to assess a person's Alzheimer's disease and dementia risk has shown that 2 in every 3 participants plan on taking preventative action to reduce their future risk.  

The Australian National University's Alzheimer's Disease Risk Index (ANU-ADRI) is a series of questions designed to evaluate a person's risk of developing dementia based on their lifestyle.

However, until now, it was unknown as to whether participants were motivated to take action based on the results of the ANU-designed test.

Currently more than 342,000 Australians are estimated to have dementia, and, without any medical breakthroughs or prevention programs in place, close to 900,000 people could have some form of dementia by 2050.

Dr Maree Farrow, from the Wicking Dementia Research & Education Centre, presented the survey results at the 9th Annual Dementia Research and Knowledge Translation Forum in Sydney.

"We found that a large majority of users did, in fact, intend to take some action to change their lifestyle," Dr Farrow said.

"Just as importantly, users also found the ANU-ADRI recommendations easy to understand, helpful and motivating."

The survey of 184 Australian adults found that users were most likely to change behaviour for physical activity (58%), followed by cognitive activity (49%) and fish intake (47%).

The test is part of a bigger dementia risk reduction program called Body Brain Life which is being led by Australian National University Professor Kaarin Anstey, Director of the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre for Early Diagnosis and Prevention and Centre for Research on Ageing Health and Wellbeing.

"We have had very promising results from both our ANU-ADRI user experience survey and our pilot Body Brain Life online dementia prevention program." said Professor Anstey.

The ANU-ADRI is currently targeted at people in their middle age who might be at risk of dementia due to lifestyle and health factors such as smoking, obesity and diabetes. Dr Farrow also pointed out that the test is becoming popular with users over 65 years of age who want to learn more and receive advice about lowering their dementia risk.

Based on these results, the intention is for the test to be rolled out to medical clinics within Australia to use as an initial health assessment for people who might be at risk of dementia. Participants can then discuss the results with their GPs.

"An unexpected result from the evaluation was that only 1 in 5 users were likely to see a health professional based on their result," said Dr Farrow, who received funding from the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre for Early Diagnosis and Prevention to undertake this evaluation.