New Geriatric Cognition Chart May Improve Dementia Monitoring

Researchers at Laval University in Quebec and colleagues have devised an assessment chart called QuoCo (for cognitive quotient) to track patient cognition, offering a new method they say can help identify dementia during the earliest stages. Thestudy was published yesterday in theCanadian Medical Association Journal.“Similar to the ‘growth charts’ that are used in pediatrics, cognitive charts allow physicians to position any patient based on age, education, and Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] scores, and simply track the longitudinal profile of cognitive decline over time,” wrote lead study author Patrick Bernier, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues. Such a chart “could prompt earlier intervention for an older adult who ‘fell off’ the curve,” the authors noted.The MMSE is commonly used to screen for dementia, but there is no consensus on how best to determine whether changes in MMSE scores over time reflect age-associated cognitive decline or represent mild cognitive impairment or dementia. Also, previous studies show MMSE cut-off scores are less reliable for some populations, particularly for older adults with less formal education.Bernier and colleagues analyzed data from a longitudinal study of older adults known as the Canadian Study of Health and Aging. They assessed 7,569 participants aged 65 years or older who completed an MMSE at study baseline, and then 5 and 10 years later.By comparing score results of the 6,411 participants who remained cognitively hea...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Canadian Medical Association Journal cognition dementia Mini-Mental State Examination Patrick Bernier QuoCo Source Type: research