If the person is found to have significant cognitive decline, then this needs to be followed up with a medical examination to determine whether dementia is present.
Most screening tests for dementia involve a brief list of questions to directly assess cognitive functioning.
The IQCODE attempts to overcome this problem by assessing change from earlier in life, rather than the person's current level of functioning.
[2] Examples of such situations include: “Remembering where to find things which have been put in a different place from usual” and “Handling money for shopping”.
[3] The IQCODE has near-zero correlations with a person's level of education or with their intelligence earlier in life.
[3] A Cochrane review conducted in 2021 focused on the use of the IQCODE in primary care settings for the detection of dementia was unable to provide any guidance due to a surprising lack of research in this specific area.
A Short IQCODE has been developed, consisting of the 16 items, and has been found to be as valid as the full version.