International psychogeriatrics
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Comparative Study
Detection of mild cognitive impairment and early stage dementia with an audio-recorded cognitive scale.
Physicians often miss diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early dementia and screening measures can be insensitive to very mild impairments. Other cognitive assessments may take too much time or be frustrating to seniors. This study examined the ability of an audio-recorded scale, developed in Australia, to detect MCI or mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) and compared cognitive domain-specific performance on the audio-recorded scale to in-person battery and common cognitive screens. ⋯ The ARCS demonstrated better discrimination between normal controls and those with mild deficits than typical screening measures. Performance on cognitive domains within the ARCS was well correlated with the in-person battery. Completion of the ARCS was accomplished despite mild difficulty hearing the instructions even in very elderly participants, indicating that it may be a useful measure in primary care settings.