Abstract
Introduction: Cognitive assessment of older adults who are either illiterate or with low levels of education is particularly challenging because several battery tasks require a certain educational background. Early detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in the elderly using validated screening tools is of great importance since this population group could benefit from new drugs that are being investigated for the treatment of dementias. Cutoff scores for psychometric properties of cognitive tests are not well established among adults with low levels of education. The present study aimed to critically review the literature on cognitive assessment tools for screening cognitive syndromes including MCI and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in older adults with low levels of education.Methods: We conducted a systematic search of MEDLINE, LILACS, Cochrane, and SCOPUS electronic databases of cross-sectional and prospective studies with adults over 55 years of age.Results: We found a significant number of assessment tools available (n = 44), but only a few of them showed diagnostic accuracy for the diagnosis of MCI and AD in older adults with low levels of education: the Mini-Mental State Exam; the Montreal Cognitive Assessment; the Persian Test of Elderly for Assessment of Cognition and Executive Function; the Six-Item Screener; and the Memory Alteration Test. Few studies evaluated individuals with low levels of education, with a wide range of cutoff scores and cognitive test batteries.Conclusion: We found that a small number of studies evaluated adults with 4 years of formal education or less. Our findings further support the importance of developing specific tools for the assessment of older adults with low levels of education.
Highlights
Cognitive assessment of older adults who are either illiterate or with low levels of education is challenging because several battery tasks require a certain educational background
The use of cognitive assessment tools that are easy to administer is still challenging given the high prevalence of low education in the global population
We found that a small number of studies evaluated adults with 4 years of formal education or less and a wide range of cutoff scores for various cognitive test batteries
Summary
Cognitive assessment of older adults who are either illiterate or with low levels of education is challenging because several battery tasks require a certain educational background. Detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in the elderly using validated screening tools is of great importance since this population group could benefit from new drugs that are being investigated for the treatment of dementias. The present study aimed to critically review the literature on cognitive assessment tools for screening cognitive syndromes including MCI and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in older adults with low levels of education. Data from Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) shows there were 46.8 million people living with dementia worldwide in 2015, and it is estimated this number will be 74.5 million in 2030 and 131.5 million in 2050. Detection of MCI in the elderly using validated screening tools is of great importance since this population group could benefit from new drugs that are being investigated for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases including AD. Evidence shows that, since MCI is a transitional phase between normal aging and AD, there is less brain involvement and those affected are more likely to benefit from drug therapies [5, 6]
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