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The AD8: a brief informant interview to detect dementia
J E Galvin1, C M Roe, K K Powlishta
1Department of Neurology, Alzheimer Disease Research Center, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63108, USA. galvinj@neuro.wustl.edu
Neurology
|August 24, 2005
Summary
The AD8 is a new informant-based tool that effectively identifies very mild dementia. This brief measure shows high accuracy in distinguishing normal aging from early-stage dementia.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Neurology
- Psychometrics
Background:
- Distinguishing normal cognitive aging from very mild dementia is challenging due to limitations of current cognitive tests.
- Informant-based assessments may offer greater sensitivity for early dementia detection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify informant-reported clinical variables capable of differentiating cognitively normal individuals from those with very mild dementia.
Main Methods:
- A 55-item informant query battery was developed and evaluated against the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale.
- Multiple regression and ROC curves were used to identify key discriminating items.
- The final version, AD8, was tested on participants with CDR 0 (no dementia) and CDR 0.5 (very mild dementia).
Main Results:
- The AD8 demonstrated good to excellent discrimination between no dementia and very mild dementia (AUC=0.834).
- With a cutoff of two endorsed items, the AD8 achieved 74% sensitivity and 86% specificity for very mild dementia.
- Including individuals with more severe dementia increased sensitivity to 85%.
Conclusions:
- The AD8 is a brief and sensitive tool for differentiating between non-demented and demented individuals.
- Combining the AD8 with participant assessments may enhance diagnostic accuracy in primary care settings.