Saint Louis University Mental Status Exam
Free cognitive screen for older adults with high dementia detection accuracy.
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The Saint Louis University Mental Status (SLUMS) Exam is a brief screening assessment for cognitive impairment, developed in 2006 at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine Division of Geriatric Medicine in affiliation with a Veterans' Affairs medical center. It was initially validated in a veteran population but is now used for any individual aged 60 years and older showing signs of cognitive deficit. Unlike some other cognitive screens, the SLUMS is free for all healthcare professionals to access and use.
Quick Facts
- Purpose
- detect mild cognitive impairment(veterans)
Facts from the source article.
Scoring
The SLUMS is scored from 1 to 30, with higher scores indicating greater functional ability and lower scores indicating greater cognitive impairment. Scoring accounts for education level. For individuals with a high school education, scores of 27–30 suggest normal cognition, 21–26 suggest mild neurocognitive disorder, and 1–20 suggest dementia. For those with less than high school education, scores of 25–30 indicate normal cognition, 20–24 indicate mild neurocognitive disorder, and 1–19 indicate dementia.
Did You Know?
- Available studies report sensitivity and specificity greater than 95% in differentiating normal cognition from dementia.
- Research on the reliability and validity of the SLUMS is relatively limited.
More in Mental Disorders Screening and Assessment Tools
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Saint Louis University Mental Status Exam (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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