Dementia test made famous by Donald Trump now just a phone call away in Hong Kong
Researchers from Chinese University of Hong Kong create a truncated version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which they hope will lead to early detection
A five-minute mental health test developed by a Hong Kong university that can be administered over the phone has been hailed as an important step in catching dementia in its early stages.
As Hong Kong faces an ageing population boom – the number of people aged 65 or older is expected to double to 2.37 million in two decades – early detection of dementia, which has no cure, is crucial to treatment.
The test, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), caught international attention after US President Donald Trump scored full marks in January after his mental state was questioned by US legislators.
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Dementia describes a decline in memory and other mental skills. The most common type is Alzheimer’s disease, a life-limiting illness marked by a gradual deterioration in one’s mental capacities including memory, judgment and the ability to communicate.
MoCA was first published in English in 2005, and was localised into Chinese for the Hong Kong population in 2009 by researchers from Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Medicine.
It involves verbal and written tests, which examine seven cognitive functions, including spatial relationship skills, naming, memory, attention, language, abstraction and orientation.