Objective: The aim of this study was to assess whether the psychometric properties of a new version of the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE) for elderly migrants...Show moreObjective: The aim of this study was to assess whether the psychometric properties of a new version of the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE) for elderly migrants(IQCODE-sf-M) has better predictive quality for dementia than the original version in short form (IQCODE-sf) for dementia in elderly migrants with low or no education. The original version IQCODE-sf contains 16 items and the IQCODE-sf-M contains 21 items, of which 11 items are newly added, assuming to be less culturally biased.Methods: This study is a case control design. In this study 111 patients of the memory clinic and 50 healthy participants with the age of 55 years or older were included. The patient group was divided in three groups; dementia (n = 49), MCI (n = 34) and cognitively healthy (n = 28). At least 50% of participants in the patient sample were illiterate. The informants of the participants filled out the IQCODE, for example a caregiver or relative. Results: The area under the curve (AUROC) of the IQCODE-sf was 0.86. A cut-off point of 3.69 yielded a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 74%. The AUROC of the IQCODE-sf-M was 0.87. A cut-off point of 3.57 yielded a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 86%. We found no statistically significant difference in the psychometric properties between the new modified IQCODE (IQCODE sf-M) and IQCODE in short form (IQCODE-sf).Conclusion: In this study it has been shown that the original version of the IQCODE in short form works fine for the elderly migrants in the clinical and community settings and could not be improved by adding 11 new itemsShow less
Objectives. In the Netherlands, a significant part of the population consists of non-Western immigrants, such as people from Turkey, Morocco and Surinam. The number of these elderly, non-Western...Show moreObjectives. In the Netherlands, a significant part of the population consists of non-Western immigrants, such as people from Turkey, Morocco and Surinam. The number of these elderly, non-Western immigrants is expected to increase and they are now reaching an age at which cognitive deteriorations due to dementia might occur. Although many instruments are available for the diagnosis of dementia with native Dutch patients, research showed that there is a high rate of under- and misdiagnosis among ethnic minority patients. The diagnosis of dementia for this group can be considered as challenging, as there is a major lack of appropriate neuropsychological assessment methods for culturally different and low-educated or illiterate populations. Therefore, adapted neuropsychological test batteries were developed by neuropsychologists at Erasmus MC for non-Western immigrants, in order to assess dementia. The aim of this study was to examine the validity and to investigate the relation and importance of these adapted neuropsychological tests. . Methods. This study consisted of patients with cognitive decline (n = 29) and cognitively healthy controls (n = 23), with a non-Western immigration background. Patients were referred to the Alzheimer Centre of the Erasmus MC, whereas controls were recruited through social networks and were assessed by a neuropsychologist in training. The RUDAS, verbal fluency tests and literacy screening were used as screeners, after which a number of adapted neuropsychological tests, such as Clock Reading Test and Recall of Pictures Test were administered. Results. As expected, controls showed significantly better performance on most tests in the battery than patients. Against expectations, education level of the patients and controls appeared to be associated with performance on a large part of the battery. Education level was found to be highly associated with participants’ literacy. Tests measuring similar cognitive functions were found to be significantly related. . . Conclusion. This study indicates that various adapted test batteries form a foundation to discriminate dementia between non-Western immigrants with cognitive decline and cognitively intact non-Western immigrants, in the Netherlands on group level. Although these results should be interpreted with caution, as the samples were small and not homogeneous, this study has an important clinical relevance. Future research is needed to obtain more generalizable results.Show less
