Preventive-comprehensive assessment (PCA): a new screening method for subclinical cognitive problems.

Abstract

Physicians often need to be able to assess cognition in a simple way, particularly for screening of subclinical processes in aged people. This paper describes a new, quick test battery called preventive-comprehensive assessment (PCA). It consists of six various testing items (repetition of three words, back-spelling of the word "sport", problem searching ina complex picture, recall of the three words, three progressive colored matrices, clock drawing test), evaluating language, recent memory, executive function, judgment and thinking capacities. The total scores. compared to the normal performance of different age groups, allow us to distinguish between normal and pathological status. If abnormal results are recorded, we need to perform further and deeper neuropsychological investigations, in order to obtain the possibly exact diagnosis. The PCA battery is sensitive and reliable; it can be used in itself, or as a part of a more complex battery of an intense comprehensive evaluation (ICE), carried out in population screening aimed at promoting healthy and active aging.