A cognitive screening battery for dementia in the elderly

The objective of this study is to propose a screening instrument for dement ia based on a reduced number of neuropsychological tests. The sample consis ts in the pooled data of the five follow-up visits of the Paquid cohort stu dy on cerebral aging: the estimation sample included 2792 subjects (8830 ob servations) and the validation sample included 985 subjects (2643 observati ons). Among scores significantly associated with dementia, we retained only those that increased the specificity of the model for a sensitivity of one . Seven neuropsychological tests and the MMSE subscores were considered. Th e most discriminant combination of tests included the MMSE and the subscore s "orientation to time" and "recall three objects," the Benton Visual Reten tion Test, and Isaacs' Set Test of verbal fluency. The specificity of this screening instrument was 0.77 for a sensitivity of 1. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sci ence Inc. All rights reserved.