title: [Development of a brief communication ability scale for Japanese demented elderly].
abstract: We developed a brief scale to evaluate communication ability of the demented elderly. This scale assesses not only abilities related to overall communication such as verbal function, judgment and emotional function, but also non-verbal communication such as eye-contact, nodding and smiling. The scale places little burden on the demented elderly subject and takes only a few minutes to perform, even if the dementia is severe. We evaluated 106 demented elderly residents of nursing homes using this brief communication ability scale, and the following results were obtained. The validity of this scale was confirmed by the high correlation coefficient between this scale and the formal caregiver questionnaire scores concerning communication ability, and the high-correlation coefficient between this scale and intellectual functions (r = -0.904), emotional functions (r = -0.841) and motor functions (r = -0.679) of dementia syndromes rating scale (Gottfries, Bråne, Steen scale; GBS scale), Hasegawa's Dementia Scale-Revised (HDS-R) (r = 0.625) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMS) (r = 0.733). The reliability of this scale was confirmed by the high interrater reliability coefficient of 0.828, test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.940 and Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.938. These results indicate that the new scale is useful in the assessment of communication ability among the demented elderly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Akinori
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Yoshinari
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mizuno
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tabata
authors.forename: Yoichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: Hiroto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shibayama
authors.forename: Gen
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sobue
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D044466:Asian People; D003142:Communication; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male