The 5-item GDS was as effective as the 15-item GDS for depression screening in this population, with a marked reduction in administration time. If validated elsewhere, it may prove to be a preferred screening test for depression.

Cognitive impairment creates significant challenges for patients, their families and friends, and clinicians who provide their health care. Early recognition allows for diagnosis and appropriate treatment, education, psychosocial support, and engagement in shared decision-making regarding life planning, health care, involvement in research, and financial matters. An IAGG-GARN consensus panel examined the importance of early recognition of impaired cognitive health. Their major conclusion was that case-finding by physicians and health professionals is an important step toward enhancing brain health for aging populations throughout the world. This conclusion is in keeping with the position of the United States’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that reimburses for detection of cognitive impairment as part the of Medicare Annual Wellness Visit and with the international call for early detection of cognitive impairment as a patient’s right. The panel agreed on the following specific findings: (1) validated screening tests are available that take 3 to 7 minutes to administer; (2) a combination of patient- and informant-based screens is the most appropriate approach for identifying early cognitive impairment; (3) early cognitive impairment may have treatable components; and (4) emerging data support a combination of medical and lifestyle interventions as a potential way to delay or reduce cognitive decline.

In comparison with data from predominantly white populations, our proportion of AD cases was lower and that of VascD cases was considerably higher than anticipated. The percentage of clinically depressed older individuals was also high. These findings could have implications for differential cultural and genetic risk factors for dementia among diverse ethnic/racial groups. Further studies are needed to obtain accurate prevalence estimates of dementing disorders among the different U.S. Hispanic populations.

This study describes the development of the Barriers to Healthcare Access Survey (BHAS) used to evaluate seven barrier factors believed to influence healthcare access for elderly Hispanics with memory or cognitive problems. This study further reports the results of the BHAS applied to a community sample of cognitively impaired older Hispanics and their caregivers. The study includes (1) The BHAS's development and procedures to establish instrument validity and reliability; (2) Interviews with the BHAS on 65 cognitively impaired Hispanics who were undergoing full diagnostic assessment for dementia and their caregivers. The most frequently perceived healthcare barriers reported in our study were related to (1) personal beliefs (38%), (2) language proficiency (33%), and (3) economic status (13%). The BHAS possesses the requisite psychometric properties to be an effective instrument for an initial survey of perceived barriers to access health care for low-education, cognitively impaired, elderly Hispanic patients. The findings suggest that perceptions regarding illness, health consequences of aging, and beliefs about the utility of medicine do, in fact, influence healthcare use by older Hispanic patients with dementia. Language proficiency and economic status remain common barriers among elderly Hispanic subgroups, but when these barriers are experienced by the cognitively impaired, serious healthcare implications ensue, especially delay in early diagnosis and treatment.