Screening for Dementia in Primary Care: A Comparison of the GPCOG and the MMSE.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition (GPCOG) is a brief cognitive test. This study compared the GPCOG to the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the most widely used test, in terms of their ability to detect likely dementia in primary care.

METHODS: General practitioners across three states in Australia recruited 2,028 elderly patients from the community. A research nurse administered the GPCOG and the MMSE, as well as the Cambridge Examination for Mental Disorders of the Elderly Cognitive Scale-Revised that we used to define likely dementia.

RESULTS: Overall, the GPCOG and the MMSE were similarly effective at detecting likely dementia. The GPCOG, however, had a higher sensitivity than the MMSE when using published cutpoints.

CONCLUSION: The GPCOG is an effective screening tool for dementia in primary care. It appears to be a viable alternative to the MMSE, whilst also requiring less time to administer.