Neuropsychiatric symptoms in korean patients with Alzheimer's disease: exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis of the neuropsychiatric inventory.
OBJECTIVE
We designed this study to examine subsyndromes in Korean patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).


METHODS
Initial participants were 778 AD patients recruited from the Clinical Research Center for Dementia of South Korea and assessed via the Korean Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Those with > or =1 neuropsychiatric symptom were randomly divided into groups. Principal axis factoring with oblimin rotation was used to analyze group 1 inventory results, and maximum likelihood estimation extraction with Bollen-Stine bootstrapping was used for group 2.


RESULTS
The results of the EFA showed the presence of 4 subsyndromes: hyperactivity, affect, psychosis and apathy/vegetative symptom. The CFA results indicated this model was the best-fitting model for explaining these subsyndromes.


CONCLUSIONS
Our model showed the best fit and identified 4 subsyndromes. This study might contribute to a clearer understanding of the neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD.
Kang
Hyo Shin
HS
Center for Clinical Research, Samsung Biomedical Research Institute, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Ahn
Inn Sook
IS
Kim
Ji Hae
JH
Kim
Doh Kwan
DK
D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001519:Behavior; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006948:Hyperkinesis / Q000523:psychology; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D056910:Republic of Korea