Early identification of cognitive impairment and dementia: Results from four years of the community consultation center.

The community consultation center was established as the core facility for a project entitled "Community Support Network for Citizens with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Dementia." This study reports on our center's activity and user outcomes. Users consulted with medical staff regarding their memory problems and were self-screened using a touch-panel computer assisted screening tool (TPST). Dementia was suspected when the TPST score was 12 points or below, and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was conducted by our onsite clinical psychologists, which served as the gold standard. All reports were provided to user's primary care physicians, or a nearby medical institute if users did not have a primary care physician. Patient outcomes were obtained from participating medical institutes. Informed consent was obtained for all users. In the four-year period, 2802 users visited the center. Of them, 1565 registered (men/women=519/1046; mean age, 74 years). Of 1354 people who used TPST, 622 (45.9%) scored 12 points or below. 409 confirmed diagnoses from the medical institutes revealed MCI in 11.2%, Alzheimer's disease in 37.1%, and vascular dementia in 8.0%. Among the 207 users who had no primary care physicians at consultation, 43 (20.8%) were diagnosed with MCI or dementia. Approximately half of the users who took the TPST were suspected of dementia following interview by a clinical psychologist. Both MCI and dementia were confirmed by the medical institutes in 59.6% of users. We conclude that our consultation center plays a pivotal role in early diagnosis of MCI and dementia.