Dementia screening in primary care: critical review

Introduction. Primary care professionals need useful and simple tools to detect early cognitive impairment in patients with any clinical suspicion of dementia. Aim. This critical review attempts to analyze the psychometric properties of cognitive screening tests, commonly used for screening dementia in primary care setting, which have been adapted for Spanish speaking population in the Iberian Peninsula. Development. Special emphasis has been placed on those instruments which met the following criteria: easy correction and short-term application (less than or equal to 10 minuts). Properties such as reliability, validity and especially the discriminating power of the instrument (older people with dementia vs. healthy older adults) have been detailed. Conclusion. The future of brief cognitive assessment in primary care setting requires the adaptation and validation of new tests for the Spanish population, improving the sensitivity of the tests in patients with mild cognitive impairment and searching for measures with an adequate cross-cultural validity.