Self- and informant ratings of personality in mild cognitive impairment, reviewed.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the degree of agreement between self- and informant ratings of personality in relation to cognitive function in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) and healthy controls (HC).


METHODS
Thirty-two patients and informants with MCI, 23 with SCI and 22 HC completed the Swedish universities Scales of Personality (SSP). Correlations and incongruence between self- and informant ratings were calculated. The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used to assess cognitive function.


RESULTS
The correlations between self- and informant ratings were fair-to-moderate on a majority of SSP scales and significant in 44%. The incongruence between patients and informants was significantly larger in MCI than in HC across SSP scales. There was a significant negative correlation between the incongruence index and the MMSE for all subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
Self-informant agreement on ratings of patients' personality was reasonable. Incongruence between patients and their informants was associated with MCI but not SCI or HC. Disagreement between patients and informants indicates cognitive impairment.
Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. birgitta.ausen@ki.se
Birgitta
B
Ausén
Gunnar
G
Edman
Ove
O
Almkvist
Nenad
N
Bogdanovic
D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D017028:Caregivers; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D010556:Personality Tests; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D012647:Self-Assessment