One or more exams commonly performed on Individuals with memory concerns or other cognitive complaints, such as personality change, depression, deterioration of chronic disease without explanation, and falls or balance issues. Medicare’s annual wellness visit covers detection of possible cognitive impairment and creation of a personalized plan to manage symptoms.
Deeper dive
- These cognitive assessment tools are used to identify individuals who may need additional evaluation. No one tool is recognized as the best brief assessment to determine if a full dementia evaluation is needed. However, an Alzheimer’s Association expert workgroup identified several instruments suited for use in primary care based on the following:
- administration time ≤5 minutes,
- validation in a primary care or community setting,
- psychometric equivalence or superiority to the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE),
- easy administration by non-physician staff, and
- relatively free of educational, language and/or cultural bias.
For a definitive diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment or dementia, individuals who fail any of these tests should be evaluated further or referred to a specialist.
These screening tools used by primary care providers include:
- General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition (GPCOG)
- Mini-Cog
- Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) (this was the assessment given to President Trump in January 2018).
- Eight-item informant interview (AD8) for family members/close friends/caregivers
- Short Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE)