Centre for Policy on Ageing



The validity of psychometric instruments for detection of dementia in the elderly general population
Author(s)	R Heun, A Papassotiropoulos, F Jennssen
Journal title	International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 13, no 6, June 1998
Pages	pp 368-380
Keywords	Dementia ; Diagnosis ; Screening ; Evaluation.
Annotation	The performances of the following screening instruments were compared using receiver operating characteristics analysis: the Structured Interview for the Diagnosis of Dementia Type, Multi-Infarct Dementia and Dementias of Other Aetiology according to ICD-10 and DSM-III-R (SIDAM); the Word List Learning Task; the Verbal Fluency Test; the Trail-Making Test (ZVT-G); the Labyrinth Test; the Blessed Dementia Rating Scale (BDRS); and the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS). Interviews were conducted in subjects' homes; and this report covers the psychometric data of 287 out of 291 interviewed subjects. Results indicate the validity of composite instruments for the discrimination of dementia and cognitive health was higher than the validity of individual tests. However, some cognitive tests (i.e. verbal fluency and immediate recall of words) reached a high validity, making them useful and short screening instruments for dementia. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-980703003 A
Classmark	EA: LK7: 3V: 4C
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.