Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2023 Nov 14;78(11):1854-1859. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbad111.
Several U.S. health surveillance surveys contain items related to self- and proxy reports of dementia and subjective memory complaints (SMC). Despite their similar content, these items differ in terminology, item specificity, and time frame. The goal of this study was to analyze whether item features might influence endorsement rates for dementia and SMC.
We calculated design-appropriate estimates for the endorsement of dementia and SMC across U.S.-based national surveys and employed pairwise comparisons to evaluate endorsement rates across surveys. We also examined item characteristics to explore possible effects on endorsement rates.
Endorsement rates were wide-ranging for dementia (ranging from 2.7% to 9.9%) and SMC (5.6% to 46.6%). Pairwise comparisons revealed statistically significant differences on most dementia-related items (76%), and all SMC comparisons (100%). Items varied substantially in the terminology used to assess dementia and SMC (e.g., "dementia" vs "Alzheimer's disease") and used different time frames (e.g., "past month" vs "5 years").
National survey data on reported dementia and SMC can have important research, training, and policy implications, yet endorsement rates vary widely across surveys. That variability could emerge from subtle but influential item characteristics, and our findings highlight the need for item harmonization, in even their most basic characteristics. Standardizing items across national surveillance surveys facilitates comparison across surveys so that we can better understand the true burden of these conditions to inform public health initiatives.
美国有几项健康监测调查包含与自我报告和代理报告的痴呆症和主观记忆抱怨（SMC）相关的项目。尽管这些项目的内容相似，但在术语、项目特异性和时间框架方面存在差异。本研究的目的是分析项目特征是否会影响痴呆症和 SMC 的认可率。
我们计算了基于美国的全国性调查中痴呆症和 SMC 的适当设计估计值，并采用成对比较来评估各调查的认可率。我们还检查了项目特征，以探讨对认可率的可能影响。
痴呆症（2.7%至 9.9%）和 SMC（5.6%至 46.6%）的认可率差异很大。成对比较显示，大多数与痴呆症相关的项目（76%）和所有 SMC 比较（100%）均存在统计学上的显著差异。评估痴呆症和 SMC 的项目在使用的术语（例如，“痴呆症”与“阿尔茨海默病”）和使用的时间框架（例如，“过去一个月”与“5 年”）方面存在很大差异。
报告的痴呆症和 SMC 的国家调查数据对研究、培训和政策具有重要意义，但各调查的认可率差异很大。这种差异可能源于细微但有影响力的项目特征，我们的研究结果强调了在甚至最基本的特征方面，项目协调的必要性。在全国性监测调查中标准化项目有助于各调查之间的比较，以便我们能够更好地了解这些疾病的真实负担，为公共卫生计划提供信息。
