DO LONG TESTS YIELD A MORE ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS OF DEMENTIA THAN SHORT TESTS - A COMPARISON OF 5 NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS

Objective: To provide comparative evidence for a valid and practical m easure of mental-status functioning that could be used in dementia cli nics. Design: Five mental-status neuropsychological tools for dementia screening were administered to patients in a memory disorder clinic. These included the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Dementia Rating Scale, the 6-item derivative of the Orientation-Memory-Concentration T est, a short Mental Status Questionnaire, and a composite tool we labe led the Ottawa Mental Status Examination, which assessed orientation, memory, attention, language, and visual-constructive functioning. The tools were compared using various criteria, including the statistical factors of sensitivity and reliability; effects of gender, native lang uage, and language of testing; the utility of these tests for the diff erential diagnosis of Alzheimer-type and vascular dementia; and sensit ivity to cognitive decline in the entire sample and among patients wit h severe dementia. Results: All of the tests were highly intercorrelat ed, suggesting that they are interchangeable. Conclusion: The comparis ons along the various criteria indicate that if the objective is to ha ve a general index of dementia of the Alzheimer type, short tests are at least as good and sometimes better than the longer tests.