Department of Neurology, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, China.
School of Public Health, Shandong University, Jinan, China.
Psychogeriatrics. 2020 Jul;20(4):427-436. doi: 10.1111/psyg.12524. Epub 2020 Feb 24.
A simple approach to detecting dementia in its early stages may help improve patient care. We therefore aimed to assess the power of the Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) for screening dementia among rural-dwelling older adults who are at high-risk for cognitive impairment.
This study included 961 participants at a high-risk for dementia who had been identified from a population-based survey of Chinese rural residents. All participants were aged 65 years and older and positive for cognitive impairment according to the Mini-Mental State Examination or the Ascertain Dementia 8-item Informant Questionnaire screening tests. The FAQ scale was used to evaluate daily activities. Dementia was diagnosed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition, criteria. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were used to determine the FAQ's optimal cut-offs for dementia. The power (or accuracy) of the FAQ for screening dementia was analyzed in the total sample and in subgroups categorized by age, gender, and educational level.
Of the 961 participants, 84 (8.7%) were clinically diagnosed with dementia. Among individuals who were positive for cognitive impairment on the Mini-Mental State Examination or the Ascertain Dementia 8-item Informant Questionnaire, the parameters for an FAQ cut-off score ≥6 as a means of discriminating those with dementia from those without dementia were area under curve = 0.899, sensitivity = 94.1%, specificity = 75.1%, positive likelihood ratio = 3.78, and accuracy = 0.768. The discriminant abilities of the FAQ scale varied with age, gender, and educational level. The discriminant parameters of the FAQ scale were similar overall among individuals who were positive on either the Mini-Mental State Examination or the Ascertain Dementia 8-item Informant Questionnaire test alone.
The FAQ scale has high discriminative power to screen for dementia among rural older residents with suspected cognitive impairment.
一种简单的早期痴呆检测方法可能有助于改善患者的护理。因此，我们旨在评估功能活动问卷（FAQ）在筛查有认知障碍高风险的农村老年人痴呆症方面的能力。
本研究纳入了 961 名来自中国农村居民基于人群调查的有痴呆症高风险的参与者。所有参与者年龄均在 65 岁及以上，且根据简易精神状态检查或确认痴呆症 8 项知情者问卷筛查测试阳性。FAQ 量表用于评估日常活动。痴呆症根据《精神障碍诊断与统计手册》第 4 版标准诊断。采用受试者工作特征曲线分析确定 FAQ 筛查痴呆的最佳截断值。在总样本以及按年龄、性别和教育水平分类的亚组中分析 FAQ 筛查痴呆的准确性（或准确性）。
在 961 名参与者中，84 名（8.7%）被临床诊断为痴呆症。在简易精神状态检查或确认痴呆症 8 项知情者问卷阳性的个体中，FAQ 截断评分≥6 作为区分痴呆症与非痴呆症患者的参数为曲线下面积=0.899，灵敏度=94.1%，特异性=75.1%，阳性似然比=3.78，准确性=0.768。FAQ 量表的鉴别能力随年龄、性别和教育水平而变化。FAQ 量表的鉴别参数在简易精神状态检查或确认痴呆症 8 项知情者问卷单独阳性的个体中总体相似。
FAQ 量表具有较高的鉴别能力，可用于筛查有疑似认知障碍的农村老年居民的痴呆症。
