A review of telephone-administered screening tests for dementia diagnosis.
Dementia screening measures serve an important role in epidemiological research, clinical trials, identifying patients for more comprehensive assessment, and monitoring progression. Telephone-administered measures allow increased flexibility. Although there are several extant telephone-administered measures that offer the promise of efficient detection of cognitive impairment, research evidence supporting their use is limited. We review telephone-based cognitive screening instruments for detecting dementia or mild cognitive impairment, critically review the evidence for their validity, and make recommendations for future research directions. Most measures reviewed do a good job of classifying patients as likely to have dementia or likely to be neurologically healthy. However, with sensitivity values ranging from 38% to 100% and specificity values ranging from 79% to 100%, there is considerable variability in the measures available. Future validation studies should reflect the populations most likely to benefit from a telephone-based measure, namely community-dwelling elderly who have not yet been identified as being cognitively impaired.
Smith
Megan M
MM
Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island 02903, USA. msmith23@
Tremont
Geoffrey
G
Ott
Brian R
BR
D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013689:Telephone