Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status

The Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) is a telephone-administered cognitive screening instrument developed by Breitner and colleagues in the late 1980s and modified (TICS-m) to assess cognitive function in older adults via remote interview. Designed for epidemiological studies and clinical research where in-person assessment is impractical or resource-intensive, the TICS combines questions assessing orientation, attention, language, memory, and reasoning in a format suitable for administration by trained interviewers without specialized clinical equipment. It has become widely used in longitudinal cohort studies, clinical trials, and telemedicine settings for cognitive screening and monitoring.