Brain-health habits check: method

What it measures

What it is: a structured checklist of which of the 14 factors a person reports (for medical conditions, what a health professional has told them). What it isn't: it does not measure brain health, cognition or dementia risk, and it gives no risk estimate or diagnosis.

Procedure

14 questions in a fixed order, one per factor: limited education in early life, hearing loss, high LDL cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, depression, current smoking, physical inactivity, excessive alcohol use, traumatic brain injury, little social contact, air pollution and untreated vision loss. The wording is our own; the medical items ask whether a health professional has said so. Answer options: Yes, No, Not sure, Prefer not to answer; any question can be skipped. Untimed.

Parameters

Scoring

No total score, weighting or risk percentage. Each answer places the factor in a group: Yes = topic to explore, No = not reported, Not sure = unsure, Prefer not to answer = declined, skipped = skipped. The result lists the groups and previews up to 3 topics (from 'explore', then 'unsure', in questionnaire order, not by medical importance), each with a short fact from the Commission report. A count of topics to revisit (Yes + Not sure) is computed only when no question was skipped ('Prefer not to answer' counts as an answer). It is used only for broad comparison bands with other players; a higher count does not mean higher risk.

Valid-run rules

Every question must appear once in the submission (skips are allowed) with the current item-set version; answers outside the offered options are rejected. A 'too_fast' quality flag (at least half of the answers under 700 ms) is stored with the run.

Differences from the classic task

Not a clinical instrument and not a published dementia risk score. The questions map one to one to the Commission's factors but use no clinical thresholds (no blood-pressure values, alcohol units or activity minutes). The Commission's population attributable fractions describe populations and are not applied to individuals.

Limitations

Depends on what people know about their own diagnoses and on honest answers; 'Not sure' answers are common. The evidence behind the factors comes from population studies and does not predict any one person's future. Several factors (education, air pollution) are circumstances rather than habits. Translations have not been validated. Not a screening or diagnostic tool.

Languages and review status

English original; translations into 99 further languages (machine-assisted translation with automated script and spelling checks; no new health claims; item IDs and option order unchanged).