Cognitive Assessment

Geriatric Assessment Tools

On their own, screening tests are not able to diagnose dementia as they test limited domains of cognition.  They can be useful in identifying someone needing further investigation and are also useful if done serially to map any change in cognition over time.

The ideal screening  test would be both sensitive (high rate of true positive) and specific (high rate of true negatives results).  However this is not as straight forward as it sounds, because positive predictive value of tests is also influenced by the prevalence of the disease condition! Keep in mind too that “cut offs” are based on population norms or empiric studies and thus can not be considered in isolation. 

Please click on the tabs below to reveal more information about each of the commonly used screening tools.