[Cross-cultural adaptation of section A of the Cambridge Examination for Mental Disorders of the Elderly-Revised Version (CAMDEX-R) for dementia diagnosis].

This article concerns the first phase of the cross-cultural equivalence of Section A in the Cambridge Examination for Mental Disorders of the Elderly-Revised Version (CAMDEX-R), a clinical interview for dementia diagnosis. Evaluating conceptual and item equivalencies involved a literature review and expert groups. Semantic equivalence involved translations of the original into Portuguese and back-translations, with analysis of the versions and the original text; meetings with experts; discussions with 52 elders using the focus group technique; further meeting with experts; pretesting on 35 elders; and elaboration of the final version. For the reliability analysis, the version was applied to 160 patients. Inter-observer reliability was nearly perfect in all sub-sections of present state and in individual items of past medical history. Test-retest reliability was moderate or higher in the sub-sections and substantial or nearly perfect in 70% of the items in past history. The Brazilian version shows satisfactory equivalence to the original and good reliability levels.