Verbal fluency in the Thai elderly, elderly with mild cognitive impairment and elderly with dementia
Keywords:
cognitive function, dementia, elderly, mild cognitive impairment, verbal fluencyAbstract
Objective To compare the scores of letter fluency and category fluency among normal elderly, elderly with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and elderly with dementia.
Material and method Participants aged 60 or over divided into the following groups: 61 normal controls (NC), 40 elderly with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 49 elderly with dementia. All participants
completed letter fluency (“ko” letter) and category fluency (names of animals).
Results The MCI and dementia group performed significantly worse than NC on both verbal fluency and category fluency. The mean (SD) scores on the letter fluency were 10.1 (4.1) for NC, 7.2 (4.3) for MCI and 3.8 (3.4) for dementia group. The mean (SD) scores on the category fluency were 19.4 (5.0) for NC, 13.2 (5) for MCI and 9.1 (4.3) for dementia group. Education was a significant predictor of letter and category performance. The optimal cut-off score for letter fluency to differentiate NC from dementia was ≤6 words, giving a sensitivity of 83.7% and specificity of 82%. The cut-off score for category fluency was ≤12 words, giving a sensitivity of 83.7% and specificity of 93.4%.
Conclusion Letter fluency and category fluency appear to be sensitive and useful assessments in detecting cognitive impairment in dementia. This study discussed and suggested the optimal cut-off score for Thais.
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References
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