Assessment of cognitive decline in the elderly by informant interview.
Cognitive decline in a sample of 64 elderly people was assessed by a standardised informant interview dealing with changes in memory and intelligence which had taken place in the previous 10 years. Scores from the interview were found to correlate (r = 0.74) with the Mini-Mental State Examination. Moreover, the informant interview was found to be less affected by pre-morbid ability than the MMSE. Direct assessment of decline by informants may be a solution to the problem of contamination by pre-morbid ability which affects traditional cognitive screening instruments.
Jorm
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National Health and Medical Research Council Social Psychiatry Research Unit, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT.
Korten
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D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008568:Memory; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors