Dementia Rating Scale Total Score Research Articles

Mattis dementia rating scale: Clinical utility and relationship with demographic variables

Abstract The Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS) is an instrument that is widely used to screen for dementia. The relationship of the DRS to demographic variables, however, has not been examined, and previous normative work is largely based on small or poorly described samples. In addition, there is no normative work that has been conducted with older medical patients. The present study utilized 90 cognitively intact and 105 cognitively impaired patients to examine the relationship of the DRS to demographic variables, and to test the clinical utility of the instrument. Within the intact group, age and education significantly correlated with DRS Total Score (DRS-T), but only age predicted unique DRS-T variance. Logistic regression was used to correctly classify 87% of patients overall. We concluded that the results affirmed the importance of considering demographic factors when interpreting DRS results. In addition, the DRS appears to be a useful instrument in screening for dementia among urban medical pati...

Psychometric Properties of the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS), including its internal consistency, sensitivity to age and education effects, pattern of change scores, convergent validity and predictive utility. Age and education effects and stability were assessed in a sample of 280 cognitively normal persons over age 55. All other features were assessed in a sample of 274 persons with cognitive impairment, including 221 newly diagnosed dementia patients and 53 patients with mild cognitive impairment. Both samples were drawn from the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Patient Registry. Within the normal sample, Pearson correlation coefficients for DRS Total score with age, education and intelligence were all significant, p < .0001; MAYO Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) shared approximately 20% variance with DRS Total score. Internal consistency was greater than .7 for Construction, Conceptualization, Memory, and Total score, greater than .65 for Attention and less than .5 for Initiation and Perseveration. DRS subscale scores for Memory, Attention, and Conceptualization were significantly correlated with appropriate indices from the WAIS-R or Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised, as assessed in the Mayo Older Americans Normative Studies, providing convergent validity for these DRS scales. Importantly, proportional hazards modeling revealed initial DRS Total score to be a significant predictor of longitudinal institutionalization and mortality outcomes.