Objectives : This study aimed to develop an informant report questionnaire for dementia screening and to verify its reliability and validity.
Methods : A preliminary questionnaire with 30 items was administered to a reliable informant for each of 81 dementia patients and 166 normal controls. Through item analyses, the 15-item Seoul Informant Report Questionnaire for Dementia (SIRQD) was ciraum up. Internal consistency and inter-informant correlation were analyzed. Factor analysis and ROC curve analysis were also performed.
Results : SIRQD was found to have high internal consistency and inter-informant reliability. Optimal cut-off score of SIRQD was 9/10, and the sensitivity and specificity at that score were .850 and .873, respectively. SIRQD was composed of four major factors (remote memory, recent memory, language, and activity of daily living). SIRQD was closely equivalent to MMSE-KC in terms of overall dementia screening ability, and it appeared efficient in discriminating very mild dementia from normal. SIRQD showed low false positive and negative rates, irrespective of levels of education, age, and sex
Conclusion : SIRQD possess good psychometrical properties and is probably very useful to screen dementia, especially for the Korean elderly with a very wide range of educational background. (J Korean Neuropsychiatr Assoc 2004;43 (2) :209-218)
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