In addition to the resource posted below, please review FAQ: How to spot the early signs of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
By Douglas Scharre, MD
Neurologist, Professor
Ohio State Wexner Medical Center
In this post, I link to the web page “SAGE: A Test to Detect Signs of Alzheimer’s and Dementia” From The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
All that follows is from the above web page:
Catch memory problems early, take the SAGE test.
The Self-Administered Gerocognitive Exam (SAGE) is designed to detect early signs of cognitive, memory or thinking impairments. It evaluates your thinking abilities and helps physicians to know how well your brain is working.
Download the SAGE test
To download the SAGE test, please first agree to our terms of use.
Why and how to take the test
Learn more about how to take the SAGE test and what to do after you complete the test.
Are you a physician?
Get information about how to administer and interpret the SAGE test as a physician.
Learn more about the SAGE test on Ohio State Health & Discovery
Hear from Douglas Scharre, MD, who developed the test with his team at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center about the SAGE test.
In the decades since, the scope of this work at Ohio State has blossomed tremendously, facilitating a multitude of new treatment options for patients and their family members grappling with devastating memory loss issues.
The science behind the SAGE test
The Self-Administered Gerocognitive Exam (SAGE) is a brief self-administered cognitive screening instrument used to identify mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from any cause and early dementia. The questions are more difficult than other similar questionnaires, such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), to pick up those with very mild impairments. There is no fee to use SAGE for individual clinical use and noncommercial educational use.
Researchers at Ohio State evaluated study participants using SAGE and then evaluated the same subjects with other established assessment tools. The test has a sensitivity of 79 percent and a false positive rate of 5 percent in detecting cognitive impairment from normal subjects. Results were published in the January-March 2010 issue of Alzheimer’s Disease & Associated Disorders.
In another study, researchers at Ohio State performed an item analysis of the test questions. Results were published in the Winter 2014 issue of The Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences.
Why take the SAGE test?
You may want to take SAGE if you are concerned that you might have cognitive issues. Or you may wish to have your family or friends take the test if they are having memory or thinking problems. The difficulties listed can be early signs of cognitive and brain dysfunction. While dementia or Alzheimer’s disease can lead to these symptoms, there are many other treatable disorders that also may cause these signs.
It is normal to experience some memory loss and to take longer to recall events as you age. But if the changes you are experiencing are worrying you or others around you, SAGE can be a helpful tool to assess if further evaluation is necessary.
How to take the SAGE test
You don’t need special equipment to take SAGE — just a pen and paper. There are four forms of the SAGE test. You only need to take one. It doesn’t matter which one you take; they are all interchangeable.
- Download the test
- Print it out and answer the questions in ink without the assistance of others
- When you’re done, take your answer sheet to your doctor so he or she can score it and talk to you about the results
Don’t look at the clock or calendar while taking the test, and if you have questions about an item, just do the best you can. The average time to complete this four-page test is 10 to 15 minutes, but there is no time limit.
Depending on your score, your doctor may schedule follow-up tests or simply keep it on file so he can see if there are any changes down the road.
Unfortunately, many people do not seek help for these kinds of symptoms until they have experienced them for several years. There are many treatable causes of cognitive and thinking loss, and in some cases, medications or other treatments can be very effective-especially if provided when symptoms first begin.
Remember that SAGE does not diagnose any specific condition. The results of SAGE will not tell you if you have Alzheimer’s disease, mini-strokes or any number of other disorders. But the results can help your doctor know if further evaluation is necessary.
What do I do after I take the test?
After you complete the test, take it to your primary care physician. Your doctor will score it and interpret the results. Your doctor may schedule some tests to further evaluate your symptoms or refer you for further evaluation.
If your score does not indicate any need for further evaluation, your doctor can keep the test on file as a baseline for the future. That means, you can take the test again in the future, and the doctor can see if there are any changes over time.
There is no answer sheet provided here for you to score yourself because there are multiple correct answers to many of the questions on the test. SAGE should be scored by your physician.
Digital version of the SAGE test
The SAGE test was developed by Dr. Scharre at Ohio State and licensed to BrainTest. You can download a mobile app version of the SAGE test at https://Braintest.com
For Physicians
How to interpret the results
Examinees who download SAGE from the Internet and take it at home are instructed to bring their completed test to their primary care physician. Scoring instructions and explanations for physicians are below:
Scoring Instructions: English US/UK, English NZ, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Croatian, French, German, Polish, Arabic
Scoring Explanation: English US/UK, English NZ, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Croatian, French, German, Polish, Arabic
The science behind the SAGE test
The Self-Administered Gerocognitive Exam (SAGE) is a brief self-administered cognitive screening instrument used to identify mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from any cause and early dementia. The questions are more difficult than other similar questionnaires, such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), to pick up those with very mild impairments. There is no fee to use SAGE for individual clinical use and noncommercial educational use.
Researchers at Ohio State evaluated study participants using SAGE and then evaluated the same subjects with other established assessment tools. The test has a sensitivity of 79 percent and a false positive rate of 5 percent in detecting cognitive impairment from normal subjects. Results were published in the January-March 2010 issue of Alzheimer’s Disease & Associated Disorders.
In another study, researchers at Ohio State performed an item analysis of the test questions. Results were published in the Winter 2014 issue of The Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences.
SAGE Validity and Normative Data
These tables and figures provide validity and normative data on SAGE.
