When memory and thinking change, one of the first questions families ask is “how far along is this?” This free navigator asks 10 questions about everyday abilities and maps the pattern to the seven-stage framework doctors use (the Global Deterioration Scale), then builds a stage-matched care checklist you can print and take to a medical appointment. It runs entirely in your browser — nothing you enter is saved, sent, or shared. Every question and every stage assignment is anchored to peer-reviewed staging research; the full methodology and sources are documented below.
This is an educational planning tool, not a medical test. It cannot diagnose dementia or assign a true clinical stage — only a clinician who examines the person can. If confusion appeared suddenly, over hours or days, seek medical care now.
What this navigator is — and what it isn't
Doctors describe dementia progression with staging frameworks, most commonly the seven-stage Global Deterioration Scale. This tool asks original, everyday-life questions and tells you which stage the overall pattern most resembles — so families can plan realistically and talk to doctors specifically. It is not the clinical GDS assessment, it borrows nothing from copyrighted instruments, and no online questionnaire can stage a person's disease. A single answer never sets the result: the estimate reflects the most advanced changes reported in more than one area of life.
Your answers never leave this page. There is no account, no email capture, and nothing is stored — close the tab and it's gone.
How this navigator was built: methodology and scientific sources
Every design decision in this tool follows published, peer-reviewed dementia staging research. Here is exactly how it works and where each piece comes from.
1. The staging framework
Results are expressed on the seven-stage continuum defined by the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), published by Dr. Barry Reisberg and colleagues in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1982 and still used in clinical practice today [1]. The functional milestones inside the questions — choosing clothing, dressing, bathing, continence, speech, mobility — follow the fixed order of functional loss documented in Reisberg's companion instrument, Functional Assessment Staging (FAST) [2], whose reliability, validity, and ordinality were confirmed in later validation research [3]. FAST's late-stage milestones are the same ones used in U.S. hospice eligibility guidelines for dementia.
2. Why these 10 question domains
The question domains mirror the areas clinicians rate when staging dementia with the GDS and with the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) — the other widely used staging standard, introduced by Hughes and colleagues in 1982 [4] and scored under Morris's 1993 rules [5]: memory, orientation, judgment and problem solving (money management), community affairs (work and organizations), home life, and personal care. Language, recognition of familiar people, and mood or behavior changes are included because they are core stage markers in the GDS descriptions [1]. Each answer option was written to correspond to a stage-specific finding reported in the staging literature: getting lost traveling to an unfamiliar place is a hallmark stage-3 finding; declining ability to handle finances marks stage 4; needing help choosing clothing marks stage 5; hands-on help with dressing or bathing and new incontinence mark stage 6; and loss of speech and mobility mark stage 7 [1,2]. The wording of every question and answer is original — no copyrighted scale text is reproduced.
3. How the estimate is calculated
The navigator reports the most advanced stage that appears in at least two different areas of life; a single answer can never set the result. That convergence rule follows two principles from the clinical literature: the National Institute on Aging–Alzheimer's Association diagnostic criteria for all-cause dementia require impairment in a minimum of two cognitive or behavioral domains [6], and the CDR is likewise scored by integrating across domains rather than letting one domain determine severity alone [5]. When one answer is more advanced than everything else, the tool flags it as an outlier to raise with a doctor instead of using it to set the stage — an isolated single-domain change has many possible causes, not all of them dementia.
4. Why there is a loved-one mode — and a pause prompt
Research consistently shows that many people in the moderate stages of dementia lose awareness of their own deficits (anosognosia), which makes pure self-report unreliable as the condition advances [7]. That is why validated real-world screening leans on informant report — instruments such as the AD8 [8] and the IQCODE [9] ask a knowledgeable family member rather than the person alone. This navigator applies the same principle: it offers a loved-one mode, and when someone answering about themselves reports mid-stage patterns, it pauses and recommends continuing together with a trusted person.
5. Precedent for a brief 10-item staging questionnaire
The premise that ten multi-domain questions can meaningfully approximate clinical staging is itself tested science: the Quick Dementia Rating System (QDRS), a 10-item questionnaire, reproduces CDR staging with high accuracy in validation studies [10]. This navigator follows the same design logic — few questions, many domains, severity-graded answer options.
Honest limitations
This specific navigator has not been validated in a clinical trial, and no online questionnaire can diagnose dementia or assign a true clinical stage. It is an educational translation of the staging literature, built so families can describe a pattern precisely and bring better information to a real evaluation. Treatable conditions — thyroid disease, B12 deficiency, depression, sleep apnea, medication side effects — can produce the same picture, which is exactly why every results screen points to a clinician.
Sources
- Reisberg B, Ferris SH, de Leon MJ, Crook T. The Global Deterioration Scale for assessment of primary degenerative dementia. American Journal of Psychiatry. 1982;139(9):1136–1139. PMID 7114305
- Reisberg B. Functional Assessment Staging (FAST). Psychopharmacology Bulletin. 1988;24(4):653–659. PMID 3249767
- Sclan SG, Reisberg B. Functional Assessment Staging (FAST) in Alzheimer's disease: reliability, validity, and ordinality. International Psychogeriatrics. 1992;4(Suppl 1):55–69. PMID 1504288
- Hughes CP, Berg L, Danziger WL, Coben LA, Martin RL. A new clinical scale for the staging of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry. 1982;140:566–572. PMID 7104545
- Morris JC. The Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR): current version and scoring rules. Neurology. 1993;43(11):2412–2414. PMID 8232972
- McKhann GM, Knopman DS, Chertkow H, et al. The diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease: recommendations from the National Institute on Aging–Alzheimer's Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's & Dementia. 2011;7(3):263–269. PMID 21514250
- Starkstein SE. Anosognosia in Alzheimer's disease: diagnosis, frequency, mechanism and clinical correlates. Cortex. 2014;61:64–73. PMID 25481465
- Galvin JE, Roe CM, Powlishta KK, et al. The AD8: a brief informant interview to detect dementia. Neurology. 2005;65(4):559–564. PMID 16116116
- Jorm AF. The Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE): a review. International Psychogeriatrics. 2004;16(3):275–293. PMID 15559753
- Galvin JE. The Quick Dementia Rating System (QDRS): a rapid dementia staging tool. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. 2015;1(2):249–259. PMID 26140284
When to skip the questions and call a doctor
- Sudden confusion that developed over hours or days — possible infection, stroke, or medication reaction; seek same-day care.
- New confusion after a fall or a new medication.
- Safety incidents — a stove left on, wandering, getting lost, large unexplained withdrawals.
Medical disclaimer: HelpDementia.com provides educational information only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician or qualified health provider with any questions about a medical condition.
Medicare covers a dedicated cognitive assessment and care-planning visit (CPT code 99483) roughly once every 180 days — it includes staging, safety review, and a written care plan, and no referral is required.