The 7MS Dementia Test: Purpose, Accuracy

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Dementia test questions, and the variety of tests that healthcare providers use, are designed to help assess cognitive function and arrive at a diagnosis when dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, is suspected. One of these tests is called the 7-minute screen, or 7MS test.

Tests like 7MS, the Ascertain Dementia 8 (AD8), and digital options and medical devices like the Cognixion headset, are useful in identifying mild cognitive impairment. However, research on dementia screening tests has yet to demonstrate significant clinical benefits for those who are then diagnosed and treated with a dementia disorder. Neither, though, does there appear to be harm.

This article presents information about the 7MS test and how it is used. It also explains the limitations of the 7MS test and lists other cognitive screening tests you may encounter.

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Included Tests

The 7MS test is an older test and others are now more highly recommended by the Gerontological Society of America or the Alzheimer’s Association. But it may still be used in identifying a cognitive disorder. The 7MS screening actually includes four different tests.

1. Enhanced Cued Recall

Enhanced cued recall is a technique included in different tests to evaluate for dementia and diagnose Alzheimer's disease. The 7MS assesses memory and learning by presenting a series of 16 pictures of familiar items. The ability to identify and remember those items—both with cues such as "type of fruit," and without any cues—is tested.

After going through all of the pictures, a distracting task such as listing the months of the year in both a forward and backward order is assigned, and then the person is asked again to recall the 16 items, along with the cue if necessary.

2. Temporal Orientation

This section of the 7MS addresses orientation through the use of the Benton Temporal Orientation test. It asks the person to identify the correct day, month, year, date, and time of day. Other screening tests for dementia may ask similar orientation questions, but this test adjusts the scoring for answers that are close to the correct answer.

Other orientation tests often do not factor in an "almost correct" answer, only giving credit for a correct answer and no points for an incorrect answer.

3. Verbal Fluency

The verbal fluency test involves asking the person to name as many animals as they can in 60 seconds.

4. Clock Drawing

The clock drawing test is a frequently used test where the person is asked to draw a clock and set the hands of the clock at a certain time.

Tests for Cognition and Dementia

Apart from the 7MS, other cognitive, function, and behavioral tests are used to evaluate dementia. These include:

While at-home tests like the Self-Administered Gerocognitive Exam (SAGE) exist, they are not recommended by the Alzheimer's Association.

Accuracy of the 7MS

The 7MS has been shown to be very effective at identifying multiple types of dementia such as Alzheimer's, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and decreased cognitive functioning related to diabetes. The accuracy of the 7MS was shown to not be affected by age, sex, or education levels.

Several studies have shown that the 7MS consistently can discriminate between someone whose cognition is intact and someone who is experiencing cognitive impairments. As noted above, this test also can also detect mild cognitive impairment, a condition that sometimes but not always progresses to Alzheimer's disease.

7MS Benefits

In addition to its ability to detect cognitive impairment in its earlier stages, the 7MS takes seven to eight minutes on average to administer, thus offering an effective way to screen for early dementia symptoms in a time-sensitive manner. It also requires little training for the test administrators.

7MS Limitations

As with other cognitive tests, the 7MS should be accompanied by other tests conducted by a physician. Diagnosing dementia involves multiple steps, including ruling out other causes of cognitive decline that could be appropriately treated and potentially reversed.

Summary

The 7-minute screen test, or 7MS test, is a method of assessing cognitive function to determine if someone is developing dementia. Like other tests, such as the Ascertain Dementia 8 (AD8) or the Mini-Cog, it relies on a series of tasks to evaluate how well they are performed.

The 7MS includes four such components: enhanced cued recall, temporal orientation, verbal fluency, and clock drawing. The results help to determine if an Alzheimer's diagnosis (or other dementia disorder) is needed.

The 7MS is fast and easy to administer but should be used in conjunction with other tests. Talk to your healthcare provider if you have questions about how the test and results are used.

5 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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Additional Reading

By Esther Heerema, MSW
Esther Heerema, MSW, shares practical tips gained from working with hundreds of people whose lives are touched by Alzheimer's disease and other kinds of dementia.