Smell test could determine risk of dementia in later life

A new study surfacing from the University of Chicago reveals that sense of smell could determine the risk of dementia in older men and women.

Researchers conducted smell tests on nearly 3,000 adults aged between 57 to 85 years old where they were asked to identify five different odours - peppermint, fish, orange, rose, and leather.

In a five-year follow-up, people who couldn’t physically detect even one of the scents all had dementia. Almost 80 percent of those who only detected one or two scents had also been diagnosed with the disease.

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“Our test simply marks someone for closer attention. Much more work would need to be done to make it a clinical test. But it could help find people who are at risk. Then we could enroll them in early-stage prevention trials”, Dr Jayant Pinto, lead author of the study said in a statement.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.