AUTHOR=Custodio Nilton , Montesinos Rosa , Lira David , Herrera-Perez Eder , Chavez Kristhy , Reynoso-Guzman Willyams , Pintado-Caipa Maritza , Cuenca José , Gamboa Carlos , Metcalf Tatiana 

TITLE=Validation of the RUDAS for the Identification of Dementia in Illiterate and Low-Educated Older Adults in Lima, Peru

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.00374

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2020.00374

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Objectives:</bold> To evaluate the performance of the Peruvian version of the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS-PE) in discriminating between controls and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in an illiterate population with low-levels of education.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> We compared the cognitive performance of 187 elderly subjects who were illiterate (controls <italic>n</italic> = 60; MCI <italic>n</italic> = 64; dementia <italic>n</italic> = 63). Neuropsychological measures included the RUDAS-PE, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), INECO Frontal Screening (IFS), and Pfeffer Functional Activities Questionnaire (PFAQ). The results were compared to a neuropsychological evaluation (gold standard), including use of Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scores.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> We found a Cronbach's alpha was 0.65; Spearman's correlation coefficient was 0.79 (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.01). The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve for the RUDAS to discriminate dementia from MCI was 98.0% with an optimal cut-off &lt;19 (sensitivity 95%, specificity 97%); whereas, to differentiate MCI and controls was 98.0% with an optimal cut-off &lt;23 (sensitivity 89%, specificity 93%).</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> Based on its excellent psychometric properties, we find the RUDAS-PE suitable to aid in the opportune detection of dementia in a geriatric illiterate population with low-levels of education.</p>