Mild behavioral impairment checklist : English-German translation and feasibility study assessing its use in clinical practice

Abstract

The mild behavioral impairment (MBI) syndrome is defined by the emergence in later life of persistent neuropsychiatric symptoms. The MBI checklist (MBI-C) can be used for systematic detection and documentation of such symptoms. Development of aGerman version of the MBI‑C and assessment of its application in aclinical setting. The MBI‑C was translated from English into German in collaboration with the main author of the original version, and its practical application was then tested on astudy population (n = 21) in agerontopsychiatric inpatient clinic. Patient compliance, understanding of questions, time effort, evaluation procedure and possible discrepancy between patient and family member evaluations were assessed. The German translation of the original MBI‑C obtained certification as an official version and can be downloaded at https://mbitest.org . All 34questions were fully completed by the study population, the level of understanding of questions was good, with the mean time effort being 16 min. In some cases, significant differences between patients' and family members' responses were found. The presence of MBI may indicate the development of an otherwise presymptomatic neurodegenerative dementia syndrome. Hence, the MBI‑C could aid in the early detection of neurodegenerative dementia. By means of the translated version of the MBI‑C presented in this study, this hypothesis can now be tested in German-speaking countries.