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Cognitive screening in Egypt: survey of opinions and best practices for detecting cognitive impairment in Egyptians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2026

Jacquelyn Berry
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo, Egypt. Email: jackieberry@aucegypt.edu
Jamie Berry
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Ziad Nasreddine
Affiliation:
MoCA Cognition, Montreal, Canada
Nasser Loza
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, The Behman Hospital, Cairo, Egypt
Kirolos Boulos
Affiliation:
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
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Abstract

It is estimated that, worldwide, a new case of dementia develops every 3 s. Around 60% of cases occur in low- and middle-income countries such as Egypt, with this number expected to rise to 71% in the next 25 years. Egypt is the most populous Arabic-speaking country, containing one-quarter of the world’s Arab population. However, a majority of tools for assessing cognitive impairment have not been standardised, normed and validated according to International Test Commission guidelines, nor have they been culturally adapted, for the Egyptian population. We gathered insight from doctors and clinicians practising in Egypt to learn how they assess patients suspected of cognitive impairment. The majority reported that they used Western-made screening tools (e.g. the Montreal Cognitive Assessment), but were overwhelmingly of the view that such assessments should be standardised and adapted for Egyptians. This lack of consistent standards can lead to misclassification of cases in this lower middle-income country.

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Special Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that no alterations are made and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press or the rights holder(s) must be obtained prior to any commercial use and/or adaptation of the article.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists
Figure 0

Table 1 Egyptian studies on neuropsychological measures with the most extensive adaptation, validation and norming, as reported in Fasfous et al (2017)7

Figure 1

Table 2 Egyptian studies with the most extensive adaptation, validation and norming published after Fasfous et al (2017)7

Figure 2

Fig. 1 Use of cognitive impairment screening tools in Egypt as reported by the survey respondents (n = 23). ACE-III, Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination, Third Edition; ASCA, Ain Shams Cognitive Assessment; MMSE, Mini-Mental Status Examination; MoCA, Montreal Cognitive Assessment; SLUMS, Saint Louis University Mental Status test; Present, screening tools the participant currently uses; Future, screening tools they wish to begin using; Colleagues, screening tools they have observed their colleagues using; Appropriate, screening tools they believe are appropriate for the Egyptian population. For example, 6 reported currently using the ACE-III and 18 reported wanting to use the MoCA in the future. We included wanting to use a new or different version of the MoCA than they are currently using, as ‘future’ tools.

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