Abstract
BackgroundEarly Dementia Questionnaire (EDQ) was developed as a screening tool to detect patients with early dementia in primary care. It was developed based on 20 symptoms of dementia. From a preliminary study, EDQ had been shown to be a promising alternative for screening of early dementia. This study was done to further test on EDQ’s reliability and validity.MethodsUsing a systematic random sampling, 200 elderly patients attending primary health care centers in Kuching, Sarawak had consented to participate in the study and were administered the EDQ. Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was used to exclude patients with depression. Those who scored >21 MMSE, were retested using the EDQ. Reliability was determined by Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency and construct validity was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (principle component with varimax rotation). Test retest Intraclass Correlation Coeeficient (ICC) was used to determine the reliability of the scale.ResultsThe result showed that the sensitivity and specificity for EDQ was 71.2% and 59.5%. The overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was good which was 0.874. Confirmatory factor analysis on 4 factors indicated that the Cronbach’s alpha for each domain were acceptable with memory (0.741), concentration (0.764), emotional and physical symptoms (0.754) and lastly sleep and environment (0.720). The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient between the first EDQ score and the retest EDQ score among those with MMSE of >21 showed a very strong overall agreement, ICC = 0.764, N = 160, P <0.001.ConclusionsThe results of the validation study showed that Early Dementia Questionnaire (EDQ) is a valid and reliable tool to be used as a screening tool to detect early dementia in primary care.
Highlights
Dementia Questionnaire (EDQ) was developed as a screening tool to detect patients with early dementia in primary care
In 2000, more than 25 million people had suffered from dementia and the number is expected to increase in year 2030 to 63 million people [4]
Those who are already diagnosed with dementia or depression, aphasic and had severe hearing impairment were excluded from the study
Summary
Dementia Questionnaire (EDQ) was developed as a screening tool to detect patients with early dementia in primary care. It was developed based on 20 symptoms of dementia. The number of ageing population is increasing globally with the expected increase of those aged 60 and above to 2 billion by the year 2050 [1]. In 2008, the proportion of those aged 60 years and above among Malaysians was 7% or a total of 1.9 million elderly persons [2]. This percentage is expected to increase to 9.8% in year 2020 [3]. Dementia is defined as progressive and largely irreversible clinical syndrome which is characterized as global impairment of mental function [5]
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