PROSE RECALL IN DEMENTIA - A COMPARISON OF DELAY INTERVALS

Objective: To explore one methodological variation, delay length, that may contribute to contradictory findings in the literature regarding the us of delayed recall in the detection of early stage dementia of t he Alzheimer type Design: Comparison of participants with dementia and without dementia on a prose recall task at both 10- and 30-minute del ay intervals. Setting: Washington University Alzheimer's Disease Resea rch Center, St Louis, Mo. Participants: Participants with very mild de mentia of the Alzheimer type (n=136) and uncompromised elderly individ uals (n=197). Main Outcome Measures: Results of the logical Memory sub test from the Wechsler Memory Scale with immediate recall and 10- and 30-minute delayed recall. Results: Participants with dementia recalled significantly less material than elderly controls at both immediate a nd delayed recall (P<.001). Multiple regression analyses revealed that dementia classification failed to account for additional variance in the 30-minute delayed score beyond that which could be accounted for b y the immediate score. A small but significant proportion of variance was accounted for in the 10-minute delayed score beyond that which cou ld be accounted for by the immediate recall score. Conclusion: Delayed recall of a prose passage does not appear to enhance the differentiat ion of very mild dementia of the Alzheimer type from normal aging in a meaningful way, whether the recall delay is 10 or 30 minutes.