Effective screening for Alzheimer's disease among older African Americans

Citation
Bt. Mast et al., Effective screening for Alzheimer's disease among older African Americans, CLIN NEURPS, 15(2), 2001, pp. 196-202
Citations number
23
Categorie Soggetti
Psycology
Journal title
CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST
ISSN journal
13854046 → ACNP
Volume
15
Issue
2
Year of publication
2001
Pages
196 - 202
Database
ISI
SICI code
1385-4046(200105)15:2<196:ESFADA>2.0.ZU;2-K
Abstract
Relatively little data exist concerning the utility of brief cognitive meas ures to detect dementia among African Americans. The current study evaluate d the clinical utility of the Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE) and the Fuld O bject Memory Evaluation (FOME) in detecting Alzheimer's disease (AD) among both African American and European American older adults. One hundred and f orty geriatric patients from a large urban academic medical center were exa mined. Overall, the FOME appeared to be more effective in detecting AT) tha n was the MMSE (93% sensitivity vs. 75% sensitivity, respectively), althoug h both measures suffered from relatively low specificity (63.5) in the full sample. The FOME demonstrated exceptional clinical utility among African A merican patients (sensitivity 98.3%; specificity = 64.5; positive predictiv e power 83.8%; negative predictive power 95.2%). The results of this study support the use of the FOME among older African Americans to detect dementi a.