9-item cognitive screen designed for general practice with patient and informant components. ≈ 5 min to complete. Free with attribution.
GPCOG (General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition) is a validated clinical instrument used to assess 9-item cognitive screen designed for general practice with patient and informant components.. It is most often used for 9-item cognitive screen designed for general practice with patient and informant components.. The instrument contains 15 items. Typical administration time is ≈ 5 min.
Source / attribution: Free to use with citation
9-item cognitive screen designed for general practice with patient and informant components. GPCOG is part of standard practice in this setting because it provides a structured, replicable assessment that can be tracked over time and compared across patients or visits.
Like all screening or assessment instruments, GPCOG is a structured aid — not a diagnostic test in isolation. Results should be interpreted alongside history, examination, and clinical context. Where a score crosses an actionable threshold, the next step is typically a more detailed clinical evaluation rather than a definitive diagnosis.
Answer all 15 items below to see your GPCOG score and interpretation.
All scoring runs in your browser. No data is sent anywhere — close the tab and the answers are gone.
Patient component scored 0-9. Informant component 0-6 if needed. Total max 15. Score <= 4 suggests cognitive impairment.
Scoring notes: Patient component scored 0-9. Informant component 0-6 if needed. Total max 15. Score <= 4 suggests cognitive impairment.
The cutoffs below are drawn from the published validation literature. Always interpret in clinical context.
| Score range | Band | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 9–15 | Normal | None |
| 5–8 | Possible impairment | Further evaluation |
| 0–4 | Cognitive impairment | Comprehensive assessment |
This is an illustrative walkthrough, not a real patient. Follow the same four steps with your own answers — or use the live calculator at the top of this page.
Mark each item Yes or No. Each "Yes" adds the item's weight; each "No" adds 0. The example below uses illustrative answers.
| # | Item | Example response | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patient: Correctly recalls today's date | No | 0 |
| 2 | Patient: Clock face — circle drawn correctly | Yes | 1 |
| 3 | Patient: Clock face — numbers placed correctly | No | 0 |
| 4 | Patient: Clock face — hands set to 11:10 correctly | Yes | 1 |
| 5 | Patient: Recalls a recent news event | No | 0 |
| 6 | Patient: Recalls full name from address (e.g., 'John') | Yes | 1 |
| 7 | Patient: Recalls street number from address | No | 0 |
| 8 | Patient: Recalls street name from address | Yes | 1 |
| 9 | Patient: Recalls suburb/city from address | No | 0 |
| 10 | Informant: Patient has more trouble remembering recent events than before | Yes | 1 |
| 11 | Informant: Patient has more trouble recalling conversations a few days later | No | 0 |
| 12 | Informant: Patient has more difficulty finding the right word | Yes | 1 |
| 13 | Informant: Patient is less able to manage money and finances | No | 0 |
| 14 | Informant: Patient is less able to manage medications independently | Yes | 1 |
| 15 | Informant: Patient needs more help with transport (driving, public transit) | No | 0 |
Add the weights from the items where you marked "Yes" (skip the "No" answers — they contribute 0).
0 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 1 + … (items 9–15 sum to 3) = 7
Find the row in the interpretation table whose range contains your total:
Total = 7 falls between 5 and 8 → Possible impairment
Possible impairment. Further evaluation
A score is one input alongside history and examination. GPCOG supports clinical judgment — it does not replace it.
Psychometric figures are drawn from the validation literature and may vary across clinical populations and translations.
If GPCOG doesn't fit your context, related instruments in cognitive include:
| Scale | Measures | Items | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMSE | 30-point cognitive screening test for dementia and cognitive impairment. | 11 | ≈ 10 min |
| PHQ-9 | Severity of depression | 9 | ≈ 3 minutes |
| GAD-7 | Severity of generalized anxiety | 7 | ≈ 2 minutes |
| AUDIT | 10-item WHO screening tool for hazardous alcohol consumption and dependence. | 10 | ≈ 3 min |
| CHA2DS2-VASc | Annual stroke risk in non-valvular atrial fibrillation | 8 | — |
| Glasgow Coma Scale | Level of consciousness after head injury | 3 | — |
| MELD-Na | 3-month mortality in advanced liver disease; transplant prioritization | 5 | — |
GPCOG (General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition) is a validated instrument that assesses general practice with patient and informant components. It is designed for clinicians, medical students, evidence-synthesis researchers. It takes about 5 min to complete, and the 15 items are summed to produce a total score.
GPCOG typically takes about 5 min to administer. The exact duration varies a little depending on whether it is self-administered or completed with a clinician. Its brief format is part of what makes it practical for routine clinical use and for repeat administration when tracking change over time.
GPCOG contains 15 items. Item scores are summed to produce the total. Scores run from 0 to 15, grouped into 3 interpretation bands from ‘Normal’ up to ‘Cognitive impairment’.
On the GPCOG (total score 0–15), scores of 0–4 fall in the ‘Cognitive impairment’ band — interpreted as: Comprehensive assessment. The full ladder is: 9–15 — Normal: None.; 5–8 — Possible impairment: Further evaluation.; 0–4 — Cognitive impairment: Comprehensive assessment. A higher score reflects a more severe presentation, and crossing a cutoff is a prompt to step up assessment or care — but these bands are screening thresholds, not diagnoses.
Scores of 9–15 fall in the ‘Normal’ band: None. A low score is reassuring but does not by itself rule out the underlying condition — if symptoms or clinical suspicion persist, reassess over time or use a complementary evaluation rather than relying on the number alone.
GPCOG has reported Cronbach's α of 0.82 in validation samples and test–retest reliability of 0.8. Designed for primary care; better than MMSE in GP settings. In practical terms, a Cronbach’s α around 0.82 indicates good internal consistency (the items hang together well), and a test–retest reliability of 0.8 means scores are strongly stable when the scale is repeated without real clinical change.
GPCOG is free to use with attribution — clinical, educational, and research use is permitted provided the original source is credited. If you publish results or reproduce the scale, include the citation to the source paper.
Brodaty, H., Pond, D., Kemp, N. M., et al. (2002). The GPCOG: A new screening test for dementia. International Psychogeriatrics, 14(1), 1-12. This is the original publication for the GPCOG — the reference to cite when reporting results.
No. GPCOG is a structured assessment aid, not a diagnostic test. Its proper role is clinical assessment of general practice with patient and informant components — it standardizes assessment and flags who needs closer evaluation, but the result must be weighed alongside history, examination, and clinical context. When a score conflicts with your clinical impression, clinical judgment takes precedence; treatment decisions should never rest on a screening score alone.
GPCOG is supported by the following peer-reviewed sources: