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Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Feb 9;22(1):97.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-022-03730-8.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on screening for mild cognitive impairment in primary healthcare

Leila Karimi  1 , Alireza Mahboub-Ahari  2 , Leila Jahangiry  3   4 , Homayoun Sadeghi-Bazargani  5 , Mostafa Farahbakhsh  6
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on screening for mild cognitive impairment in primary healthcare

Leila Karimi et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Cognitive disorders and dementia have an important effect on individual independence and orientation. According to the Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) 75% of people with dementia are not diagnosed; this may be as high as 90% in some low- and middle-income countries. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to identify the test performance of screening tools and compare them pairwise. The findings of our study can support countries in planning to establish and care for mild cognitive impairment in primary health centers.

Methods: Medline (PubMed), Scopus, Cochrane, Dare, All EBM Reviews, CRD (OVID), and Proquest were searched from 2012 to November 2021. The risk of bias was assessed through the QUADAS-2 instrument. Given the high heterogeneity between studies, a random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled effect sizes for diagnostic accuracy measures (sensitivity, specificity, and area under curve indices). I2 test was used for assessing heterogeneity and predefined subgroup analyses were performed using participants' age, country's income, and sample size of studies.

Results: A systematic search identified 18,132 records, of which, 20 studies were included in the quality assessment, and six were included in quantitative analysis. None of the studies had examined the feasibility or efficiency of mass screening. According to a pairwise comparison, IQCODE, AD8 and GPCOG showed equal or better diagnostic performance relative to the MMSE in terms of sensitivity and specificity. The random-effect model for the MMSE showed the pooled sensitivity equal to 0.73 (95% CI 0.57-0.90), the pooled specificity equal to 0.83 (95% CI 0.75-0.90), and the pooled AUC equal to 0.88 (95% CI 0.83-0.93).

Conclusion: Several benefits have been attached to short tests making them a suitable choice for use in primary healthcare settings. Considering factors such as accuracy, time of application, ease of scoring, and utilization charges, tests such as IQCODE, AD8, and GPCOG or appropriate combination with counterpart tools seem to be good alternatives to the use of the MMSE in primary care.

Keywords: Dementia; Early diagnosis; Mild cognitive impairment; Primary health care; Screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study selection process
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Results of aggregation of MMSE test sensitivity values in identifying cognitive disorders
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Results of aggregation of MMSE specificity feature values in identifying cognitive disorders
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Results of aggregation of area under curve for MMSE test in identifying cognitive disorders
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Risk of bias and concern about the applicability of each domain of quality assessment studies based on QUADAS2 tools
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Funnel plot
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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