Health‐related quality of life and mild behavioral impairment in older adults without dementia.

Background: The Mild Behavioral Impairment Checklist (MBI‐C) was developed to assess neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) and to identify mild behavioral impairment (MBI). This study validated the Taiwanese version of the MBI‐C and examined its association of health‐related quality of life (HR‐QoL). Methods: We recruited 242 older individuals without dementia (129 amnestic mild cognitive impairment, 113 cognitively normal). Their family completed the MBI‐C, the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI‐Q), and instrumental activities of daily living scale. Participants completed the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS‐15), the Mini‐Mental State Examination, the 12‐item word recall test, the category verbal fluency test and the EuroQol 5 dimensions questionnaire (EQ‐5D). Cronbach's α was used to evaluate the internal consistency of the MBI‐C. Linear regression models were used to examined the association between MBI‐C score and HR‐QoL assessed using ED‐5D. Results: The prevalence of MBI was 12% of all participants. Cronbach's α of the MBI‐C was 0.893. The optimal cut‐off point of MBI‐C was 7.5 for identifying MBI, with a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 85%. The MBI‐C total score (β = −0.01, 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.02 to −0.01, p < 0.001), MBI‐C subdomain of decreased motivation (β = −0.04, 95% CI = −0.05 to −0.02, p < 0.001) and emotional dysregulation (β = −0.02, 95% CI = −0.04 to −0.004, p = 0.01) were factors related to EQ‐5D index scores. Conclusion: Among older adults without dementia, the Taiwanese version of the MBI‐C has good reliability and validity for detecting MBI. The total and subdomains of MBI‐C were associated with decreased HR‐QoL among individuals without dementia. Key points: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are non‐cognitive manifestations of neurodegenerative diseases and can occur before dementia onset. The Mild Behavioral Impairment Checklist (MBI‐C) was developed to assess NPS and to identify mild behavioral impairment (MBI).This study demonstrated that the Taiwanese version of the MBI‐C has good reliability and validity for detecting MBI, with an optimal cut‐off point of 7.5 (sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 85%).Among older adults without dementia, the total MBI‐C score and its subdomains of decreased motivation and emotional dysregulation were associated with decreased health‐related quality of life. In addition, a higher MBI‐C total score was associated with depressed mood and poor performance on memory tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]