Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have found factors that can help predict if a person with mild cognitive impairment will ultimately get Alzheimer's disease or Lewy body dementia.

Patients suffering from mild cognitive impairment along with depression were 66 percent more likely to develop dementia, according to the Mayo Clinic. Patients who exhibited apathy along with having mild cognitive impairment were 99 percent more likely to have dementia in the future.

Using these findings to help delay the onset of dementia may help reduce health costs and health insurance expenses.

"This delay could have a huge impact on the quality of life for individual patients and their families, not to mention the broad public health implications of delaying the societal and economic burden of dementia," says Mayo Clinic neuropsychiatrist Dr. Yonas Geda. "In fact, a previous biostatistics study from our colleagues at Johns Hopkins indicated that delaying dementia by a mere one year could reduce the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease by nearly 800,000 million fewer cases in 2050."

Alzheimer's disease translates into $172 billion in expenses each year, according to the Alzheimer's Association. While researchers don't know why brain cells begin to fail in some people, they do know that age and genetics play a role.