MUDRA Toolbox launched in 5 languages for dementia patients 

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on October 7, 2021 launched the Multilingual Dementia Research and Assessment (MUDRA) Toolbox in five Indian languages - Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

The toolbox has been launched for undertaking uniform, standardized dementia research in the country. ICMR Director General Dr Balram Bhargava said in an official statement that the toolbox includes various cognitive tests to assess different domains of cognition such as attention and executive function, memory, language, and visuospatial functions.

Mudra Toolbox: Key Highlights 

•The MUDRA Toolbox is a comprehensive tool that has been specifically designed to diagnose dementia in the Indian population.

•It has been developed over a period of six years by a team of researchers from various fields including neurologists, psychologists and speech-language pathologists.

•The investigators had worked very hard to develop and validate the tool in the Indian population.

•The unique tool comprises various tests and questionnaires and aims to be culturally, educationally and linguistically relevant. 

•It is sensitive to factors that affect performance on cognitive tests including education, language and culture.

Background

Dementia is a neurological disorder that leads to a decline in a person's cognition and impacts their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. 

As per Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI)'s Dementia India Report 2010, there are approximately 5.29 million people with dementia in India and the number is expected to go up to 7.61 million by 2030.

Despite such a high number of people with dementia in the country, only one in ten people are diagnosed due to low awareness and lack of linguistically and culturally appropriate tests that are essential for diagnosis.