General practitioner assessment of cognition
May 12 2014The General practitioner assessment of cognition (GPCOG) is a reliable, valid and efficient tool to use to screen for dementia in primary care settings for people with carers.
It takes less than four minutes to carry out the patient assessment and two minutes to interview the carer.
The GPCOG performs at least as well as the standard screening tool, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) [1]. There is some evidence that interviewing both carers and patients improves accuracy.
Evidence shows that the GPCOG is not influenced by someone’s cultural and linguistic background, making it useful in multicultural patient settings [2].
It is less sensitive and specific than the Mini-cog and takes longer.
Access the GPCOG online at www.gpcog.com.au
Before you administer the GPCOG for the first time, please make sure you have read the instructions on the first page of the test and/or watched the training video.
References
- Brodaty, H., et al. (2002) The GPCOG: a new screening test for dementia designed for general practice. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2002. 50(3):530-4.
- Basic, D., Khoo, A., Conforti, D. et al. (2009) Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale, Mini-Mental State Examination and General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition in a multicultural cohort of community-dwelling older persons with early dementia. Australian Psychologist 2009; 44(1):40-53
