4 INSTRUMENTAL ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING SCORE AS A PREDICTOR OF ONE-YEAR INCIDENT DEMENTIA

The purpose of the study was to estimate the risk of one-year incident dementia in elderly community dwellers, according to their performanc e on a four Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) score. From a random sample of 2792 French elderly community dwellers included in the PAQUID study 1804 non-demented subjects were interviewed by speci fically trained psychologists about their performance on telephone use , use of transport, responsibility for medication intake, and budget m anagement, and then followed up. One year later 21 of these subjects h ad a diagnosis of incident dementia, according to DSM-IIIR criteria an d confirmed by a neurologist. The odds ratio for incident dementia, ad justed for age, increased from 10.6 for subjects dependent in one IADL to 318.4 for those dependent in the four IADLs (p < 0.0001), compared with independent subjects. These four IADLs could be useful for scree ning subjects at high risk of incident dementia.