USE OF THE FULD OBJECT-MEMORY EVALUATION IN THE DETECTION OF MILD DEMENTIA AMONG SPANISH-SPEAKING AND ENGLISH-SPEAKING GROUPS

It is increasingly important that assessments for dementia do not intr oduce bias against different cultural/language groups. In this study t he authors investigated the usefulness of the Fuld Object-Memory Evalu ation (OME) as a culture-fail screen for dementia. Because the OME use s common and familiar household objects, the authors hypothesized that it would retain minimal cultural/language bias, an issue that has bee n addressed in few other investigations. Results indicate that the OME has a high degree of sensitivity, 95.9%, for mildly impaired Spanish- speaking patients and 95.5% for English-speaking patients diagnosed wi th mild Alzheimer's disease. The specificity for Spanish-speaking and English-speaking control subjects was 100% and 96.7%, respectively. Se nsitivities and specificities were reduced when only one trial of the OME was used. Sensitivity of the OME greatly exceeded that of the Fols tein Mini-Mental State Exam in this mildly impaired dementia group. Th erefore the OME may serve as a brief reliable, culture-fair test when screening patients for possible dementia.