These tests may help spot symptoms before they even affect your daily life
MBRF Trustee, Dr. Patricia Boyle, recently spoke with Woman’s World about the online cognitive tests available to help people track changes in their cognition and memory over time and take a proactive approach to maintaining their brain health. “With any self-administered cognitive assessment, it’s a good idea to consult a doctor and share your test results to discuss what may be causing the changes you’re experiencing (in memory) and how to best address them,” she said.
Early detection is imperative to catch neurodegenerative diseases like dementia in their early stages and slow disease progression. But regular cognitive testing is not yet commonplace in healthcare settings. This is why oftentimes, people don’t undergo proper examination until symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease become glaring or affect daily life. However, certain at-home tests can help catch early signs of conditions like dementia. Here’s everything you need to know about how to spot mild cognitive impairment at home.
4 free tests to do now that can help detect memory changes
There are several tests you can take for free in the comfort of your own home that don’t take too much time or require medical supervision. While these options won’t point to a definitive diagnosis or narrow down a specific type of dementia, experts say they can be useful tools to be proactive about brain health. Here, four options to get started.
The SAGE test
In 2010, researchers at The Ohio State University created the Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE), which has since become the primary self-exam tool. It was designed to evaluate your current cognitive, memory or thinking abilities and spot subtle, early signs of impairment.
Using a series of tasks, SAGE assesses and scores multiple brain functions, explains Douglas Scharre, MD, Creator of the SAGE test, Professor of Clinical Neurology and Psychiatry, Director of the Division of Cognitive Neurology, Center for Cognitive and Memory Disorders at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
This includes orientation, language, calculations, memory, abstraction (forming general concepts), executive function (basic tasks) and visual and spatial perception.
SAGE has four equal, interchangeable versions, is completed in an average of 13 minutes with 20 seconds for scoring, can be given in any setting and identifies individuals who may be appropriate for new disease-modifying Alzheimer’s disease therapies, notes Dr. Scharre. (Learn more about Alzheimer’s disease treatment options here.)
The test is very sensitive to cognitive changes and might detect shifts before they’re affecting daily activities, explains Jason Krellman, PhD, ABPP-CN, Assistant Professor of Neuropsychology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
“It is recommended if you have cognitive concerns at any age you should take the SAGE or BrainTest,” says Dr. Scharre. “If you are over 65 years old, you should take the tests to get a cognitive baseline assessment. If the assessment is in the normal range, repeat the test yearly or, if over 80 years old, repeat the test every six months.”
“Taking the SAGE test more than once allows individuals to compare their results to baseline and track cognitive changes over time. As with any self-administered cognitive assessment, it’s a good idea to consult a doctor and share your test results to discuss what may be causing the changes you’re experiencing and how to best address them.”
Patricia Boyle, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Rush University and Trustee of the McKnight Brain Research Foundation
MindCrowd Memory Test
This test is part of a scientific study to help measure how the brain performs at different ages. It aims to study memory in relation to genetics and other health, medical, environmental and lifestyle factors, explains Boyle.
“The MindCrowd test is a helpful online assessment, but again doesn’t diagnose memory impairment or dementia. Results from this test show how individuals perform compared to all of the others who have taken the MindCrowd test so far. It’s a crowdsourcing effort to identify participants to help advance research on cognitive aging and memory loss.”
Patricia Boyle, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Rush University and Trustee of the McKnight Brain Research Foundation
The test takes about 10 minutes to check things like your attention, memory and brain health, and it can be taken multiple times. That said, there is no clear guidance on how many times or how often it should be taken, notes Boyle.
McCance Brain Care Score
The Massachusetts General Hospital’s McCance Center developed the McCance Brain Care Score (BCS) to help answer the question: “What can I do to take good care of my brain?” says Boyle.
This assessment is broken down into three categories: physical, lifestyle and social-emotional functioning. It aims to measure what you are already doing to help protect your brain and prolong brain health, including activities like exercise, diet, sleep, social interactions, lowering blood pressure and more, she explains.
The scores you achieve in each category can be shared with your doctor to help them recognize areas where you can modify your lifestyle to improve your brain score. This test can be taken multiple times, but there is no steadfast guidance on how many times the test can or should be repeated.
AARP Cognitive Assessment
“AARP’s cognitive assessment tool was developed to help people see how they are doing in terms of different aspects of cognition, including reasoning, memory and attention. This cognitive assessment measures speed and accuracy in five key areas: processing speed, attention, working memory, cognitive flexibility and recognition memory.”
Patricia Boyle, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Rush University and Trustee of the McKnight Brain Research Foundation
What’s more, the AARP test also offers “Lifestyle Check-Ins” that ask questions pertaining to six lifestyle areas that scientists say may have the biggest impact on brain health. It also offers additional tests for other areas of cognition, including spatial processing, non-verbal and verbal reasoning.
The AARP assessment provides a brief snapshot of how your brain is performing compared to others of the same age, gender and years of education, explains Boyle. This test can be taken multiple times, but there is currently no clear guidance on how many times or how often it should be taken.
The bottom line on home dementia screenings
Home screenings can be a great tool to catch early changes in your memory, problem-solving abilities or other areas of cognitive function. While they’re not a substitute for a professional diagnosis, they can clue you into a need to visit your doctor for more thorough testing. A physician will typically diagnose dementia through a combination of reviewing your medical history, a physical exam, brain scans (such as an MRI, PET scan or CT scan) and blood tests.