Cognitive Screening

Early recognition of cognitive impairment may support diabetes self-management and treatment adherence. Cognitive tools graded severity and supported triage but were often insufficiently specific for etiology in low-education, high-vascular-risk populations. The review concluded that cognitive screening should mainly be used for severity grading and triage rather than determining dementia etiology in LMICs. Cognitive testing was reported in most included studies, with MMSE the most common tool. MRI plus neuropsychological testing was the most common workflow, while MRI alone was rare. The findings support routine cognitive screening for patients with type 2 diabetes, especially advanced or poorly controlled disease. Integrating cognitive evaluation into standard diabetes care may become increasingly important as Alzheimer’s treatments emerge and global T2DM prevalence rises.