Centre for Policy on Ageing



Telephone screening to identify potential dementia cases in a population-based sample of older adults
Author(s)	Margaret Gatz, Chandra A Reynolds, Richard John
Journal title	International Psychogeriatrics, vol 14, no 3, September 2002
Pages	pp 273-290
Keywords	Dementia ; Screening ; Twins ; Longitudinal surveys ; Sweden.
Annotation	The utility of the TELE, a telephone assessment for dementia, is examined. Participants were 269 individuals from the Study of Dementia in Swedish Twins, not selected on the basis of previous dementia diagnosis. Thus, the conditions of the study reflect the actual situation in which a screening instrument might be employed. Scores on TELE were compared to dementia diagnoses. Using the best cutoff score, sensitivity was .86 and specificity was .9. Longitudinal follow-up established that false positives primarily included those who subsequently developed dementia. Telephone screening for dementia has both clinical and research applications. The authors also recommend that longitudinal studies should include a telephone interview component for individuals who drop out of the study, to assess dropouts' cognitive status. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-030127206 A
Classmark	EA: 3V: SVR: 3J: 76P
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