INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of dementia in the population is increasing with time especially in developing Countries. In a country like India where scarcity of mental health resources are acute, appropriate screening tools can be developed so that community level health workers can screen and refer dementia cases.

OBJECTIVE: To establish the psychometric properties of a Malayalam Version of Mental Health Gap Assessment Module (mhGAP–AMD[1]) for Dementia.

METHODS: 300 purposively selected elderly were assessed with mhGAP–AMD by community health workers and reassessed with Community Screening Instrument for Dementia (CSID BRIEF[2]) by researchers.

RESULTS:  mhGAP–AMD yielded a sensitivity of 1, specificity of 0.85, Positive Predictive Value of 0.36 and Likelihood Ratio (LR) of 6. Significant inverse correlation was found between mhGAP–AMD scores and CSID scores (r=0.85). AUC obtained was 0.7 in ROC analysis. Youdens index (J) found a cut–off point of 7 for maximum sensitivity and specificity.

DISCUSSION: The mhGAP–AMD can be used as an effective screening tool for identifying dementia by community health workers and can be referred to specialists cost effectively.