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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Improving identification of cognitive impairment in primary care | | Author(s) | Soo Borson, James M Scanlan, Jill Watanabe |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 21, no 4, April 2006 |
| Pages | pp 349-355 |
| Source | http://www.interscience.wiley.com |
| Keywords | Ethnic groups ; Cognitive impairment ; Dementia ; Assessment procedures for mental patients ; Diagnosis ; General practice ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | In a community sample of 371 mainly ethnic minority older people in Washington State, 231 met criteria for dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). This study's main purpose was to compare the relative level and predictors of the accuracy of the Mini-Cog, a brief cognitive screen. The Mini-Cog detected cognitively impaired subjects much more effectively than did subjects' own physicians, correctly classifying 83% of the sample and 84% of cognitively impaired subjects. Physicians correctly classified 59% of all subjects, but identified only 41% of cognitively impaired subjects. The Mini-Cog's advantages over physicians was greatest when impairment was mildest. Additional subject variables associated with missed detection by physicians were non-Alzheimer type dementia and low education, low literacy and non-English speaking, factors that had little or no effect on the performance of the Mini-Cog. Ethnic differences, also observed for physician recognition, were not significant for final regression equations. The number and recency of primary care visits and duration of the primary care relationship were not associated with physicians' recognition of cognitive impairment. The study thus demonstrates that recognition of cognitive impairment by primary care physicians is adversely influenced by important patient and disease characteristics. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-060609205 A |
| Classmark | TK: E4: EA: DA:4C: LK7: L5: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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