Psychometric Identification of Early Alzheimer Disease in an Elderly Chinese Population with Differing Educational Levels

Abstract

In this study, the authors (1) validated a concise neuropsychologic assessment battery to identify early Alzheimer disease (AD) in an elderly Chinese population, (2) studied how the level of literacy in this cohort influenced the psychometric test performance, (3) determined the best individual and combination of tests from the battery to detect AD, and (4) compared their results with parallel data from Western and other similar Chinese neuropsychologic studies. The psychometric battery was administered to 155 cognitively healthy elderly Chinese and 72 predominantly mild AD patients. Results showed that the majority of tests in this neuropsychologic battery validly identified early AD in the elderly Chinese subjects. Correct interpretation of test scores required adjustment for patients' educational attainments. Verbal memory, verbal fluency, and visuospatial functioning were the most important diagnostic domains, and this pattern has broad similarities with findings from the West, supporting the transcultural cognitive manifestation of AD.