Dementia Screening in Ethnolinguistically Diverse Populations

Download or read book Dementia Screening in Ethnolinguistically Diverse Populations written by Tracey Jane and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cognitive screening tools for dementia have often shown a cultural bias. Although in the preliminary stages of research, the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) (Storey, Rowland, Conforti, & Dickson, 2004) has recently shown promise. It obtains high sensitivities and specificities, does not appear susceptible to the effects of translation, and appears applicable in a multicultural setting. Therefore; the aim of the current research was to examine further the performance of the RUDAS in an ethnolinguistically diverse sample. Archival data consisting of scores on the RUDAS and on a comprehensive test battery was gathered from 64 neuropsychological referrals to an Australian health service from 2002-2006. The majority (83%) of these referrals were from a non-English speaking background and were tested in their preferred language. The RUDAS was found to be a fairly cohesive measure, and domain subscales were strongly correlated with corresponding scores on other neuropsychological tests indicating accurate performance. Although moderately predictive of diagnoses of dementia and cognitive decline (obtaining sensitivities of 71% and 62% respectively) the RUDAS lacked specificity, a finding which may be attributed to the prevalence of mild cognitive impairment in the sample. The RUDAS fullscale score was found resilient to age, gender, English language proficiency and education effects; however subscale scores were differentially affected, perhaps indicating a tendency towards bias. Overall, this study suggests that the RUDAS is a useful screening instrument in an ethnolinguistically diverse clinical population.