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A short, simple screening test has shown early promise in detecting milder mental impairment in older adults, before they've progressed to dementia. Many older people who ultimately develop Alzheimer's disease first go through a period of what doctors call mild cognitive impairment. There is no hard definition of this phase, but in general it means that a person has some memory loss or other signs of cognitive decline but no serious problems in day-to-day functioning. Because the changes are subtle, mild cognitive impairment often goes unrecognized, and there is no simple test for detecting it. Ideally, though, experts want such a test -- a quick screen that primary care doctors can use routinely, akin to checking cholesterol or blood pressure levels. In the new study, researchers tested a screening instrument they've developed to do just that. It is a combination of a few simple tasks that assess older adults' memory and a set of questions on their day- to-day functioning -- whether they can take care of things like shopping and making meals. They found that among the 204 older adults they studied, the test was able to correctly classify people as cognitively healthy, mildly impaired or suffering from dementia 83 percent of the time. That accuracy rate is "pretty good," said researcher Dr. James J. Lah, principal investigator at Emory University in Atlanta -- particularly considering that the screening is simple. 2009-07-08
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