[1] The GPCOG consists of both a cognitive test of the patient and an informant interview to increase the predictive power.
[1] The cognitive test includes nine items: (1) time orientation, clock drawing: (2) numbering and spacing as well as (3) placing hands correctly, (4) awareness of a current news event and recall of a name and an address ( (5) first name, (6) last name, (7) number, (8) street, and (9) suburb).
However, the conduction of standard investigations such as lab tests is required to rule out reversible causes of cognitive impairment.
The positive predictive value was highest in people aged under 75 (0.90) and 0.72 for the total sample.
The negative predictive value for the total sample was 0.93 making it a good tool to rule out cognitive impairment.
[1][2] Of note, positive and negative predictive values depend on the prevalence of the disorder in the studied population.
Three recently conducted literature reviews recommend the GPCOG as brief screening tool for GPs.
[7] A recently conducted study in Australia[8] found that the GPCOG in comparison to the MMSE and Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) [9] was best to rule out dementia in a multicultural cohort of 151 community-dwelling persons.
[8] This indicates that the latter are more cultural unspecific screening tools than the MMSE making them especially invaluable in multicultural patient settings.
Translations in other languages such as Spanish, German, Mandarin or Cantonese are available upon request from the author or accessible from the GPCOG website (see section below).
It contains a web-based version of the GPCOG as well as links and tools for GPs dealing with elderly and cognitively impaired patients.