Dementia in the workplace: Identifying better ways of assessing cognitive functioning

Abstract

With a push towards self-sufficiency in retirement and staying at work for longer, there is a growing need to be able to anticipate the cognitive capacity of older workers. This review concerns the dangers of dementia associated with continued employment and considers two broader issues within the organisational context: (i) workers may exit the workforce prematurely due to concerns about cognition (ii) workers may stay at work for longer despite cognitive decline. Current measures used to screen for dementia, such as the MMSE, have limited diagnostic value. A new objective measure, the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), is explored.