Acceptability and Results of Dementia Screening Among Older Adults in the United States

To measure older adults acceptability of dementia screening and assess screening test results of a racially diverse sample of older primary care patients in the United States.

Cross-sectional study of primary care patients aged 65 and older.

Urban and suburban primary care clinics in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2008 to 2009.

Nine hundred fifty-four primary care patients without a documented diagnosis of dementia.

Community Screening Instrument for Dementia, the Mini-Mental State Examination, and the Telephone Instrument for Cognitive Screening.

Of the 954 study participants who consented to participate, 748 agreed to be screened for dementia and 206 refused screening. The overall response rate was 78.4%. The positive screen rate of the sample who agreed to screening was 10.2%. After adjusting for demographic differences the following characteristics were still associated with increased likelihood of screening positive for dementia: age, male sex, and lower education. Patients who believed that they had more memory problems than other people of their age were also more likely to screen positive for dementia.

Age and perceived problems with memory are associated with screening positive for dementia in primary care.