Impairment of instrumental activities of daily living in patients with mild cognitive impairment.
OBJECTIVE
THIS STUDY WAS CONDUCTED TO EXAMINE THE FOLLOWING: whether patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) show impairments in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) as compared to controls; to identify the functional sub-domains of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) that are affected in MCI and, finally, to identify the Seoul-Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (S-IADL) scale cut-off score that best differentiated between MCI and controls.


METHODS
This study was carried out at the geropsychiatry clinic, university hospital. The study participants included 66 patients with MCI and 61 normal elderly. The S-IADL and Seoul-Activities of Daily Living (S-ADL) scales were administered to the main caregivers of all participants in order to assess everyday functioning.


RESULTS
The total S-IADL score was significantly higher in the patients with MCI [mean (SD) score=4.47 (2.06)] than in the controls [mean (SD) score=1.44 (1.65)] (p<0.001). The patients with MCI performed significantly worse on IADLs, such as the ability to use the telephone, prepare meals, take medication, manage belongings, keep appointments, talk about recent events, and perform leisure activities/hobbies (p<0.05). The S-IADL scale discriminated well between patients with MCI and controls (Area Under Curve=87%).


CONCLUSIONS
The patients with MCI showed impairments in the ability to perform complex ADL in comparison to healthy controls. IADLs related to memory and frontal/executive functioning were particularly affected in MCI.
Ahn
Inn Sook
IS
Center for Clinical Research, Samsung Biomedical Research Institute and Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Kim
Ji-Hae
JH
Kim
Seonwoo
S
Chung
Jae Won
JW
Kim
Hyeran
H
Kang
Hyo Shin
HS
Kim
Doh Kwan
DK