Comparison between two tests of delayed recall for the diagnosis of dementia.
Diagnosis of dementia is a challenge in populations with heterogeneous educational background.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the accuracies of two delayed recall tests for the diagnosis of dementia in a community with high proportion of illiterates.


METHODS
The delayed recall of a word list from the CERAD battery (DR-CERAD) was compared with the delayed recall of objects presented as line drawings from the Brief Cognitive Screening Battery (DR-BCSB) using ROC curves. Illiterate (23 controls and 17 patients with dementia) and literate individuals (28 controls and 17 patients with dementia) were evaluated in a community-dwelling Brazilian population.


RESULTS
The DR-BCSB showed higher accuracy than the DR-CERAD in the illiterate (p=0.029), similar accuracy in the literate individuals (p=0.527), and a trend for higher accuracy in the entire population (p=0.084).


CONCLUSIONS
the DR-BCSB could be an alternative for the diagnosis of dementia in populations with high proportion of illiterates.
Takada
Leonel Tadao
LT
Department of Neurology, Hospital das Clínicas, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Caramelli
Paulo
P
Fichman
Helenice Charchat
HC
Porto
Cláudia Sellitto
CS
Bahia
Valéria Santoro
VS
Anghinah
Renato
R
Carthery-Goulart
Maria Teresa
MT
Radanovic
Márcia
M
Smid
Jerusa
J
Herrera
Emílio
E
Nitrini
Ricardo
R
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000592:standards*; D012372:ROC Curve; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014705:Verbal Behavior