THE ALTERS-KONZENTRATIONS-TEST (GERIATRIC CONCENTRATION TEST) - RESULTS FROM A STUDY AMONG RESIDENTS OF MANNHEIM OVER THE AGE OF 65

The validity of the Alters-Konzentrations-Test (AKT, Geriatric Concent ration Test) developed by Gatterer (7) was tested in a sample of 33 ps ychiatric patients and 28 residents of an old people's home 65 years o f age and older. The AKT evaluation correlated significantly with the diagnosis of dementia according to the Feighner criteria in the old pe ople's home sample for which a cut-off of 47/48 was used. However, the re was no significant correlation in the sample of psychiatric patient s. The AKT score correlated with the values from other procedures for evaluating cognitive performance. In the old people's home sample, the AKT scores were significantly associated with self-reported activitie s of daily living as well as with activity and mood of the probands re ported by the head of home; this, however, is not true for the hospita l patients.