title: Improving screening accuracy for dementia in a community sample by augmenting cognitive testing with informant report.
abstract: This study sought to determine whether the augmentation of cognitive testing with an informant report questionnaire could improve accuracy in screening for dementia in a community setting. The sample consisted of 646 subjects aged 70-93 years. Cognitive state was assessed using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Informants completed the 16-item short form of the Informant Questionnaire for Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE). Dementia was diagnosed according to DSM-III-R criteria. Combination of the IQCODE with the MMSE resulted in more accurate prediction of caseness than either test alone. Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis demonstrated the superior screening performance of a logical "or" rule and a weighted sum of scores on the two tests over other methods of combination, replicating previous clinically based research. The findings also suggest that the appropriate combination of existing tests may be a fruitful method of improving screening accuracy in a variety of situations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University, and Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, Locked Bag 11, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia. ajm@mhri.edu.au
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mackinnon
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khalilian
authors.forename: Anthony F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Jorm
authors.forename: Ailsa E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Korten
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: Reinhild
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mulligan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000379:methods; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires