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Holsinger and colleagues note that dementia is a growing public health problem that is frequently overlooked by primary care practitioners. They reviewed the literature to determine which of the available screening tests hold promise for accurately identifying dementia patients.
By extracting data from their selection of studies, they calculated positive and negative likelihood ratios for 25 different screening tests, thereby establishing each test’s capability to correctly identify various forms of cognitive impairment. Not surprisingly, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) emerges as the most studied instrument and is recommended as a reasonable all-purpose screening test. They conclude that although no single instrument is ideal for a…