CAMCOG - A CONCISE NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TEST TO ASSIST DEMENTIA DIAGNOSIS - SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC DETERMINANTS IN AN ELDERLY POPULATION-SAMPLE

The CAMCOG, which forms part of the CAMDEX interview (Roth et al., 198 6, 1988), is a brief neuropsychological battery designed to assess the range of cognitive functions required for a diagnosis of dementia, an d to detect mild degrees of cognitive impairment. It was administered to a population sample of 418 elderly people (aged 77 and above) in th eir place of residence. The data show that in contrast to the Mini-Men tal State Examination, total CAMCOG scores are well distributed and th ere is no ceiling effect. Examination of the association between CAMCO G scores and socio-demographic variables (age, sex, education and soci al class) shows that each exerts a significant, and independent, effec t upon performance. CAMCOG also includes a number of subscales which a ssess individual areas of cognitive function. Of the eight major subsc ales (orientation, language, memory, attention, praxis, calculation, a bstract thinking, perception), age was significantly related to all bu t attention; sex with attention, praxis, calculation and perception; e ducation with language and abstract thinking; and social class with la nguage and perception. In all these analyses, the results were adjuste d for the effects of the other socio-demographic variables using analy sis of variance. However, education and social class are highly correl ated variables and when the association with education is examined wit hout adjusting for social class, attention and praxis are also found t o be significantly related to education. Caution must therefore be tak en when using the CAMCOG (or any other cognitive test) as a screening test for dementia, using a single, predetermined cutpoint. In general, the combination of brevity and breadth of the CAMCOG, along with its distributional properties, makes it an attractive neuropsychological t est for use in the community or the clinic.