Wilson Robert S, Bennett David A
Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Neuroepidemiology. 2005;25(1):19-25. doi: 10.1159/000085309.
The adequacy with which brief cognitive tests suitable for telephone administration can assess cognitive decline due to aging and Alzheimer's disease is uncertain. The authors examined these issues with data from the Religious Orders Study, which involves annual clinical evaluations and brain donation at death. Participants are 996 older Catholic clergy members. Analyses focused on seven cognitive tests which can be administered in person or by telephone in less than 15 min. Composite measures of global cognition and of episodic, semantic and working memory were formed. During a mean of 5.8 years of follow-up, performance on each composite measure declined in persons with and without dementia at baseline. Among those without dementia, possession of the apolipoprotein E epsilon4 allele was associated with more rapid cognitive decline, especially in episodic and working memory. Level of performance on each cognitive measure proximate to death was inversely related to the level of cortical plaques and tangles in the brain. In a subset of persons who were given the tests by telephone, there was no evidence that performance differed from in-person administration. The results suggest that briefly assessing cognition with tests amenable to telephone administration may prove useful in longitudinal epidemiologic studies of older persons.
适用于电话施测的简短认知测试评估因衰老和阿尔茨海默病导致的认知衰退的充分性尚不确定。作者利用宗教团体研究的数据对这些问题进行了研究，该研究涉及年度临床评估和死后脑捐赠。参与者为996名年长的天主教神职人员。分析集中在七种认知测试上，这些测试可以在15分钟内亲自施测或通过电话施测。形成了整体认知以及情景记忆、语义记忆和工作记忆的综合测量指标。在平均5.8年的随访期间，基线时患有和未患痴呆症的人的各项综合测量指标表现均有所下降。在未患痴呆症的人中，载脂蛋白Eε4等位基因的存在与认知衰退更快有关，尤其是在情景记忆和工作记忆方面。接近死亡时每项认知测量指标的表现水平与大脑中皮质斑块和缠结的水平呈负相关。在通过电话进行测试的一部分人中，没有证据表明测试表现与亲自施测不同。结果表明，在对老年人的纵向流行病学研究中，用适合电话施测的测试简要评估认知可能是有用的。
