In the News
New Dementia Screening Tool Overcomes Cultural Bias
Crain’s Health Pulse, May 31, 2018
Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine have piloted a dementia-screening tool that has patients recall images rather than words. It accurately detects early signs of cognitive decline regardless of a person's ethnic background, native language or education level, according to research published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
The Picture-Based Memory Impairment Screening, which takes about four minutes to administer, can be used by primary-care physicians, nurses and other health professionals to detect early signs of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, according to the developer of the tool, Dr. Joe Verghese, director of Montefiore Einstein Center for the Aging Brain.
"The purpose of the tool is to raise a red flag so that doctors seeing the patient might be aware something is going on that needs further testing," he said.
About 28 million of the 36 million people with dementia worldwide are not diagnosed, according to the World Alzheimer Report.
The picture tool, which seeks to overcome inaccurate results caused by cultural biases and poor education levels, has been piloted in India, Japan and New York. A patient in India, for example, might be presented with the picture of a monkey, a common animal there, while a patient in the Bronx might be asked to identify a picture of a horse. Individuals are asked to place four pictures into categories, such as body parts or animals, and then recall them later on in the session.
Verghese said the researchers are setting up a clinical trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health, to determine if the tool, coupled with a decision tree for physicians, would improve dementia care in a primary-care setting.
The researchers hope the tool will enable physicians to spot cognitive decline when intervention can make a difference, Verghese said. Early identification can help people get into clinical trials and start treatment to manage symptoms, as well as enable them to make long-range care plans.
Early detection might also prompt a physician to suggest lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise, that affect cognition. "You might be able to do something to impact their quality of life and improve their functionality for as long as possible," Verghese said. —R.S.
- Brain Scan Test Predicts Fall Risk in Elderly
- Einstein and Penn State Researchers Awarded Grant to Study AD
- Home Safety Tips for Patients with Alzheimer's Disease
- How You Walk Could Flag Mental Decline
- The Importance of Caring for Yourself While Caring for Someone With Alzheimer
- The Importance of Early Detection in Alzheimer’s Disease
- This Therapy May Help Reverse Memory Loss in People With Early Stages of Alzheimer
- Does Caregiver Burden Correlate with Patient Cognitive Impairment?
- New Dementia Screening Tool Overcomes Cultural Bias
- The Stages of Alzheimer’s
- 5 Simple Ways to Boost Memory and Mood
- How I’m Preparing for the Dementia I Believe I Will Get
- Dementia Care Reimagined
- Can Dancing Prevent Dementia?
- Adapting Telemedicine for Dementia During COVID-19
- Is Dancing the Kale of Exercise?
- Pre-Dementia Linked to Certain Personality Traits in a Study
- Using Cognitive Rehabilitation to Aid Dementia Patients
- Telemedicine delivers for Alzheimer’s patients and their caregivers
- Telemedicine in Dementia Care: Here to Stay?
- NIH Awards $13.8 Million for Studies on the Prevention and Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease