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Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT) in the elderly: shortcoming of an adapted AMT in Zimbabwe
T J Allain1, A O Wilson, Z A Gomo
1Department of Medicine, University of Zimbabwe School of Medicine, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Objective:
To measure the abbreviated mental test (AMT)-and to determine factors which might influence this in a group of Zimbabwean elders.
Design:
Community based cross sectional survey.
Setting:
Randomly selected households within randomly selected villages and two high-density urban areas in north eastern Zimbabwe.
Subjects:
278 subjects aged 60 to 92 years (124 male, 154 female).
Interventions:
A questionnaire, including the AMT, was administered, at home, by trained research nurses.
Main Outcome Measures:
AMT-literacy rates, visual acuity, social and demographic information.
Results:
128 (46pc) scored less than seven, a level normally associated with significant mental impairment. Only one subject was actually disoriented in time and place. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that increasing age, female sex, rural evidence, lack of formal education, reduced visual acquity and not currently living with a spouse were all independent factors associated with low AMT score.
Conclusion:
It was apparent that the AMT was not a valid tool for screening for confusion in Zimbabwean elderly, since the prevalence of senile-dementia is increasing in the developing world. It is important to develop a screening test for use in Zimbabwe which is sensitive but is independent of these confounding variables.