Black S E, Blessed G, Edwardson J A, Kay D W
Department of Psychological Medicine, Newcastle General Hospital.
Age Ageing. 1990 Mar;19(2):84-90. doi: 10.1093/ageing/19.2.84.
The varying prevalence rates of dementia reported in elderly populations may be partly due to the use of different diagnostic measures. In a recent study in which diagnosis was based on the CAPE, a 12-item questionnaire, the prevalence rate for severe cognitive impairment for the age group 75 years or over was lower than previously reported. In the present study, the performance of the CAPE was examined in an elderly general-practice sample with a higher than usual risk of dementia. The study diagnosis was based on a combination of the diagnosis made by the computer program AGECAT and a clinical diagnosis made by the interviewing psychiatrist. Forty-five per cent of patients with definite or probable dementia, as defined, and 100% of those with possible dementia had scores above the cut-point on the CAPE. The sensitivity of the CAPE was low compared with that of other rating scales. It is concluded that the low reported rate with the CAPE is probably due to only the more severe cases being identified. For comparative purposes it is important to know the level of dementia that the instruments used are detecting.
老年人群中报道的痴呆患病率各不相同，部分原因可能是使用了不同的诊断方法。在最近一项基于12项问卷CAPE进行诊断的研究中，75岁及以上年龄组的严重认知障碍患病率低于先前报道。在本研究中，在痴呆风险高于平常的老年全科样本中对CAPE的性能进行了检验。研究诊断基于计算机程序AGECAT做出的诊断与面谈精神科医生做出的临床诊断相结合。按照定义，45%的确诊或疑似痴呆患者以及100%的可能痴呆患者在CAPE上的得分高于临界点。与其他评定量表相比，CAPE的敏感性较低。得出的结论是，CAPE报道的低患病率可能是由于只识别出了病情更严重的病例。为了进行比较，了解所使用工具检测到的痴呆程度很重要。
