title: Welcome Back to Your Future: The Assessment of Dementia by the Latent Variable "δ".
abstract: The latent variable "δ" (for "dementia") has been proposed as a phenotype for all cause dementia. δ is extracted from cognitive batteries by a specific confirmatory factor analysis in a structural equation modeling framework. δ appears to be uniquely responsible for cognition's association with functional status. Because it is extracted from Spearman's general intelligence factor "g", this has broad implications for dementia's assessment and pathophysiology. This issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease brings together several demonstrations of δ's psychometric properties by investigative groups from three continents. In their aggregate, they suggest that δ homologs may have far ranging applications in dementia's clinical assessment and biomarker selection.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry, Family and Community Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA.|South Texas Veterans' Health System, Audie L. Murphy Division GRECC, San Antonio, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Donald R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Royall
mesh_terms: D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; dementia; intelligence; latent variable; longitudinal