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Asking family about memory loss. Is it helpful?
- Source :
-
JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine . Jan2005, Vol. 20 Issue 1, p28-32. 5p. - Publication Year :
- 2005
-
Abstract
- <bold>Objective: </bold>To compare a family informant's report of memory loss in an older family member to standardized clinical diagnoses of cognitive impairment.<bold>Setting: </bold>Duke Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE), a 10-year longitudinal study of community dwellers aged 65 and greater in five counties of North Carolina.<bold>Participants: </bold>A stratified random sample of potentially demented participants was selected from the second wave of the Duke EPESE using responses to a brief cognitive screen. A neuropsychological battery was administered to these participants, and their family informants were asked whether they recognized memory loss in the participant. One hundred fifty-seven participants completed the full evaluation and also had an available family informant.<bold>Main Outcome Measures: </bold>Family informant's report of memory loss (yes, no, sometimes) compared to expert consensus diagnosis of cognitive impairment or dementia.<bold>Results: </bold>There was poor concordance between the clinical diagnoses of cognitive impairment or dementia and the family informant's recognition of memory loss (kappa=-0.05; P=.74). When informants reported memory loss, 30% of participants were found not to have a cognitive loss. Among participants in whom family informants reported no memory loss, 75% were diagnosed with dementia or cognitive impairment (sensitivity, 0.70, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61 to 0.78; specificity, 0.24, 95% CI, 0.13 to 0.40; positive predictive value, 70%; negative predictive value, 25%).<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Asking family members about memory loss in a patient may be an unreliable strategy to detect dementia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 08848734
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 119422408
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.40113.x