The Efficacy of General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition in Chinese Elders Aged 80 and Older

Objectives: This study examined the efficacy of the General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition–Chinese version (GPCOG-C) in screening dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among older Chinese. Methods: Survey questionnaires were administered to 293 participants aged 80 or above from a university hospital in mainland China. Alzheimer disease and MCI were diagnosed in light of the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association (NIA/AA) criteria. The sensitivity and specificity of GPCOG-C and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in screening dementia and MCI were compared to the NIA/AA criteria. Results: The GPCOG-C had the sensitivity of 62.3% and specificity of 84.6% in screening MCI, which had comparable efficacy as the NIA/AA criteria. In screening dementia, GPCOG-C had a lower sensitivity (63.7%) than the MMSE and a higher specificity (82.6%) higher than the MMSE. Conclusions: The GPCOG-C is a useful and efficient tool to identify dementia and MCI in older Chinese in outpatient clinical settings.