Predicting three categories of Dementia Assessment Sheet for Community-based Integrated Care System 8-items...

The Dementia Assessment Sheet for Community-based Integrated Care System 8-items (DASC-8) assesses memory, orientation, instrumental activities of daily living and basic activities of daily living. Category I (DASC-8 score ≤10), category II (11 ≤ DASC-8 score ≤16) and category III (DASC-8 score ≥17) have been defined. Based on these categories, the glycemic targets in diabetes patients aged ≥65 years have been proposed by the Japan Diabetes Society and the Japan Geriatrics Society Joint Committee. DASC-8 is difficult to apply to patients without family members or supportive persons. We propose a verbal fluency test as the screening tool.

We enrolled 69 inpatients aged ≥65 years with type 2 diabetes, who were administered the DASC-8 and VF tests, which included recalling animal names and common nouns starting with a specified letter in 1 min. The relationship between DASC-8 and verbal fluency test scores was investigated.

Animal fluency correlated with DASC-8 scores after adjustment for patient characteristics. Animal scores correlated with orientation, instrumental activities of daily living and basic activities of daily living scores of DASC-8, and tended to show a relationship with DASC-8 memory scores. An animal score ≥8 predicted category I with a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 57%. An animal score ≤6 predicted category III with a sensitivity of 85% and a specificity of 67%.

Animal scores would be useful in predicting the categories of DASC-8. Animal fluency could be a screening tool of DASC-8 when a patient's family member or supportive person is absent.