A preliminary study of the Six-Item Screener in detecting cognitive impairment.
OBJECTIVE
The present retrospective study was to explore the clinical value of Six-Item Screener (SIS), which is constituted by 6 items from mini-mental status examination (MMSE), to identify cognitive impairment.


METHODS
A total number of 1976 patients aged over 50 years, from the Memory Clinic of Huashan Hospital were employed in a battery of neuropsychological tests including MMSE. Subjects with severe conditions, unable to cooperate, or having been previously enrolled, were excluded from this study. The employed subjects were divided into 3 groups: subjective memory complaints (SMCs) (475 cases), patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (440 cases), and patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) (1061 cases, including 555 mild, 339 moderate, and 167 severe). A total score of MMSE and a score of SIS composed of date, month, year, three-word delayed recall from MMSE were calculated. Data were analyzed based on educational background.


RESULTS
The cut-off of SIS score was <2 for illiterate, <3 for elementary, and <4 for junior high school or above. The sensitivity and specificity of SIS for detecting mild AD were 88.5% and 78.3%, respectively, with an overall accuracy of 83.8%, while for detecting MCI, the sensitivity and specificity were 34.3% and 90.1%, respectively, with an overall accuracy of 63.2%.


CONCLUSIONS
SIS is an effective and reliable instrument for dementia detection in outpatient department. However, it has limited value for MCI identification.
Chen
Mei-Rong
MR
Department of Neurology, People's Hospital of Putuo District, Shanghai, China.
Guo
Qi-Hao
QH
Cao
Xin-Yi
XY
Hong
Zhen
Z
Liu
Xiao-Hong
XH
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000150:complications; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012737:Sex Factors