Measuring your brain health at home: what Remind is and is not
With short tests and questionnaires you can keep track at home of how your memory, your speech and your everyday functioning are doing. The Remind app does exactly that: it shows what is normal for you, whether that is changing, and which factors affect your own risk of dementia. Remind does not diagnose.
How can you measure your brain health?
Brain health is not one number. It covers your memory, your language, your attention, how easily you manage everyday things, and the lifestyle that shapes all of that over the long run. A measurement at home looks at a few of those parts, never at all of them at once.
Remind looks at five domains:
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Memory
A short memory test on your phone, which you can repeat. More in memory tests and brain health.
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Speech
A short speech recording of 45 seconds. Pauses, pace and choice of words sometimes shift before anyone notices. More in speech analysis as a signal for brain health.
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Fine motor skills
The rhythm and timing of your typing, never what you type. More in measuring fine motor skills through typing.
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Daily skills
A questionnaire about tasks such as money matters, cooking and planning. A similar questionnaire is also used at memory clinics. More in IADL: what it is and how the A-IADL measures it.
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Lifestyle
The LIBRA score: fifteen factors you can influence yourself, such as blood pressure, exercise and sleep. More in what is LIBRA? The lifestyle score for your brain.
Can you test your memory at home?
Yes. A short memory test on your phone or computer is something you can simply do at home. The question is what the result means, and that depends on what you compare it with.
A score on its own says little. Remind sets your result beside what is average for people your age, and above all beside your own earlier measurements. The second is what counts: everyone has their own normal, and a change from it says more than a comparison with someone else.
Is an online memory test reliable?
One test is a snapshot. A bad night, tension, the television on in the background: it all counts. A disappointing score on one day is no reason to panic, and a good score is no guarantee.
Two things do make a memory test more reliable:
- Where the test comes from. A test from scientific research, with published results on what it measures, is something else than a quiz. Check whether it says what the test is based on.
- Repetition. The same test, taken a few times under similar conditions, shows what is normal for you. Only then does a change stand out.
The measurements in Remind are based on instruments from scientific research. For each one, this site sets out where it comes from and how far the research has got. Even so, a test at home does not replace an assessment by your GP or a memory clinic.
Does Remind show your risk of dementia?
Yes, in the form research allows: Remind shows which factors raise your risk of dementia, and which ones lower it.
According to a major review in The Lancet, nearly half of all cases of dementia are linked to factors you can influence, such as high blood pressure, hearing loss, smoking and too little exercise. The LIBRA score in Remind maps fifteen of those factors for you. In research, a higher LIBRA score goes with a higher risk of dementia. So you see where your risk comes from, and what you can do about it yourself. Measure again, and you also see whether you are making progress.
Remind also follows how your memory, speech and everyday functioning develop. Together that gives a picture of your brain health now, and of the direction it is moving in.
How do you keep track of whether your memory is declining?
You do not see a change in your memory on one bad day. You see it in a line. Three things help:
- Repeat the same measurement. At set moments, under similar conditions. One dip says little; a line that slowly drifts away says more.
- Write down what you notice. A missed appointment, a forgotten bill, losing your way on a familiar route. With the date.
- Ask someone who knows you well. A partner or a grown-up child sometimes notices changes before you do.
Remind repeats the measurements and sets them side by side. If your line bends away from what is normal for you, you see it in your result, with an explanation of what it may mean and what you can do.
What is Remind, and what is it not?
| Remind is | Remind is not |
|---|---|
| An app for brain health, for use at home | A medical device |
| A picture of what is normal for you, and what is changing | A diagnosis |
| Explanation and a plan of steps, including when to see your GP | A replacement for your GP |
| Insight into which factors affect your risk | A one-off test |
What does Remind cost?
You start for free. The LIBRA lifestyle test, the first speech analysis and the first memory test cost nothing, and the brain games in the app are free too. If you want to keep measuring and follow your line over time, you take Remind Plus. With it you repeat the measurements, and you also measure your fine motor skills and your daily skills, which gives a more precise picture. Remind Plus costs € 7.99 a month and you can cancel any month.
Remind does not store conversations and does not read what you type. The app only uses patterns, such as pace and rhythm.
Sources
- Thuisarts: forgetting things quickly (in Dutch) (opens in a new window)
- Livingston et al., Dementia prevention, intervention, and care (Lancet, 2024) (opens in a new window)
- Validation of the Updated LIBRA Index (LIBRA2), Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2024 (opens in a new window)
- Sikkes et al., on the Amsterdam IADL Questionnaire, Alzheimer's & Dementia (opens in a new window)
- Implementing the Amsterdam IADL Questionnaire at the memory clinic (in Dutch) (opens in a new window)
- Psychometric properties of the SGMA (preprint) (opens in a new window)