title: Cognitive screening for dementia in primary care: a systematic review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Identifying dementia in primary care could minimize the impact of a late intervention; however, it shows high rates of misdiagnosis. One of the reasons seems to be the lack of knowledge of adequate cognitive screening instruments. This is a systematic review of the available instruments for the primary care context.
  
  
  METHODS
  For this systematic review, articles were collected according to the following combined key terms: "cognitive screening" and "dementia" and "primary care" and "review". Studies should be reviews focusing on cognitive screening instruments best used in primary care setting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirteen reviews were selected. In total, it was considered 34 cognitive screening instruments. Half of the instruments can be applied in an adequate time-limit for primary care context. Memory is the most commonly assessed cognitive function (91%). Almost half of the tests are mentioned to have influence of education or cultural factors (44%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tests such as 6CIT, AMT, GPCOG, Mini-Cog, MIS, MoCA, and STMS seem to be good alternatives to the use of the Mini-Mental State Examination when considering factors such as application time, sensitivity, specificity, and number of studies. However, there is a wide range of tests with different characteristics, therefore it is recommended that the professional gets some expertise in a few number of instruments in order to be able to choose which to use, or use in combination, depending on the setting and the profile of the patient.
authors.affiliation: Old Age Research Group (PROTER),Department and Institute of Psychiatry,Faculty of Medicine,University of São Paulo,São Paulo,SP,Brazil.
authors.forename: Juliana Emy
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Yokomizo
authors.affiliation: Old Age Research Group (PROTER),Department and Institute of Psychiatry,Faculty of Medicine,University of São Paulo,São Paulo,SP,Brazil.
authors.forename: Sharon Sanz
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.affiliation: Old Age Research Group (PROTER),Department and Institute of Psychiatry,Faculty of Medicine,University of São Paulo,São Paulo,SP,Brazil.
authors.forename: Cássio Machado de Campos
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Bottino
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*