People who have problems in managing money might be advancing towards Alzheimer's disease according to a study published in the journal, Neurology.

It was found during the study that accounting tasks which people handle with great ease all their lives suddenly become difficult in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

76 people with no memory problems and 87 with mild cognitive impairment were a part of this study. A money management test was given to participants at the beginning of the study and again a year later.

The test included handling household grocery shopping involving coins, managing a bank account, preparing bills and also detecting a financial fraud.

25 out of the 87 people who suffered from mild cognitive impairment had developed Alzheimer's disease-type dementia after a year.

On the other hand the people with no memory problems and those with mild cognitive impairment who did not develop Alzheimer's disease scored the same grades one year later.

The people who had developed dementia scored 9 percent lower for checkbook management skills one year later.

The altered management skills related to money matters is an easily detectable situation and doctors and caregivers should watch out for any such change in their patients with mild cognitive impairment.

A report said that the number of dementia patients will be 35 million across the globe just next year.