Blessed Information-Memory- Concentration Test (BIMC)
Blessed‚ 1968
Information Test
Name (1)
Age (1)
Time (hour) (1)
Time of day (1)
Day of week (1)
Date (1)
Month (1)
Season (1)
Year (1)
Place—Name (1)
Place—Street (1)
Place—Town (1)
Type of place (e.g.‚ home‚ hospital‚ etc.) (1)
Recognition of persons (cleaner‚ doctor‚ nurse‚ patient‚ relative; any two available) (2)
Memory Test
1. Personal
Date of birth (1)
Place of birth (1)
School attended (1)
Occupation (1)
Name of sibs or Name of wife (1)
Name of any town where patient had worked (1)
Name of employers (1)
2. Non-personal
Date of World War I (1) *
Date of World War II (1) *
Monarch (1) **
Prime Minister (1) ***
3. Name and address (5-minute recall) (5)
Concentration Test
Months of year backwards (2 1 0)
Counting 1–20(2 1 0)
Counting 20–1 (2 1 0)
1. Name
2. Age
3. When born
4. Where born
5. Name of this place
6. What street is it on
7. How long have you been here (How long today)
8. Name of this city
9. Today’s date
10.Month
11.Year
12.Day of week
13.Part of day
14.Time (Best guess)__________ (Actual time:_______)
15.Season
Repeat this phrase after me: John Brown‚ 42 Market Street‚ Chicago.
16.Mother’s first name
17.Name of one school you attended
18.What kind of work have you done
19.Who is the president now
20.Who was the last president
21.Date of World War I
22.Date of World War II
23.Months of the year backwards. (Start with December) D N O S A Jl Jn M Ap M F Ja
24.Count from 1 to 20
25.Count backwards 20 to 1: 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
26.Recall name and address: John Brown‚ 42 Market St.‚ Chicago (Cue with “John Brown” only. Score up to 5 errors)
Score each item “1” for incorrect response‚ “0” for correct response (except Item 26)
Katzman et al‚ 1983
1. What year is it now?
2. What month is it now?
Repeat this phrase after me: John Brown‚ 42 Market Street‚ Chicago
3. About what time is it? (within 1 hour)
4. Count backwards 20 to 1
5. Say the months in reverse order (start with December)
6. Repeat the memory phrase
Scores for correct responses shown; incorrect responses score 0.
* 1/2 point for approximation within 3 years
** President in U.S. version
*** Vice President in U.S. version
Reverse scores range from 0 (no impairment) to 37 (severe impairment) where a positive score is given to each correct answer. Score from 0 to 8 indicate normality/ minimal impairment; 9 to 19 indicate moderate impairment; 20 to 37 indicate severe impairment.
Blessed. G.‚ Tomlinson‚ B.E.‚ Roth‚ M. (1968). The association between quantitative measures of dementia and of senile change in the cerebral grey matter of elderly subjects. Br J Psychiatry‚ 114:797–811.
Katzman‚ R.‚ Brown‚ T.‚ Fuld‚ P.‚ et al. (1983). Validation of a Short Orientation-Memory-Concentration Test of cognitive impairment. Am J Psychiatry‚ 140:734–739.
Lesher‚ E.L.‚ Whelihan‚ W.M. (1986).Reliability of mental status instruments administered to nursing home residents. J Consult Clin Psychol‚ 54:726–727.
Thal‚ L.J.‚ Grundman‚ M.‚ Golden‚ R. (1986). Alzheimer’s disease: a correlational analysis of the Blessed Information-Memory-Concentration Test and the Mini-Mental State Exam. Neurology‚ 36:262–264.
Fillenbaum‚ G.G.‚ Heyman‚ A.‚ Wilkinson‚ W.E‚ et al. (1987). Comparison of two screening tests in Alzheimer’s disease: the correlation and reliability of the Mini-Mental State Examination and the modified Blessed Test. Arch Neurol‚ 44:924–927.
Blessed. G.‚ Tomlinson‚ B.E.‚ Roth‚ M.(1988). Blessed-Roth Dementia Scale (DS). Psychopharmacol Bull‚ 24:705–708.
McDowell‚ Ian. (2006). Measuring Health: A Guide to Rating Scales and Questionnaires‚ Third Edition. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
