INTRODUCTION–Dementia is a public health problem and although it mostly affects elderly population, it is not a normal part of ageing. It is a syndrome with many causes, is defined as an acquired deterioration in cognitive abilities that impairs the successful performance of activities of daily living.

AIM–To assess the mental health and age associated memory impairment, screening and grading according to the rating system of patients with age> 60years.

METHODS–In this study, 80 cases were evaluated. All patients with age >60 years were included in the study. The exclusion criteria were psychiatric illness, head injury, alcoholic or having altered sensorium due to other co–morbid condition e.g. cerebral malaria, hepatic encephalopathy, and terminal stage cancer patients. It is a observational study. These cases were evaluated for dementia clinically using mini mental status examination(MMSE), mental status questionnaire(MSQ), clock drawing test(CDT), mini cog, informant interview, and clinical dementia rating(CDR).They were also graded according to the severity of dementia using CDR.

RESULTS– The study revealed, the mean+ SD age of dementia was 71.46+6.57 years. Prevalence according to the scoring system, MMSE was 16%(male–17.8% and female–14.2%), MSQ was 31.3%(male–28.9% and female–34.3%), CTD was 48.7%(male–44.4% and female–54.3%), mini–cog was 7.5%(male–4.4% and female–11.4%), informant interview was 30%(male–28.5% and female–31.4%), and CDR was 17.5%(male–20% and female–14.3%).The dementia severity according to CDR were observed that 28.5% had questionable, 35.7% had mild, 38.8% had moderate, but none of these had severe dementia.

CONCLUSION– The Prevalence and severity of dementia increases with age both in males and females. In the course of dementia attention, calculation, and language are impaired early but the registration and recall are preserved up to late.