Literacy and Neuropsychological Functions in the Older Korean Adults

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the effects of illiteracy on neuropsychological functions of older Korean adults. Illiteracy was evaluated with the Literacy Questionnaire which involved interview with the subjects. METHODS: The participants were 206 healthy people, ages between 55 and 84, who were sampled in the Seoul-Kyungki region and Chungnam province. RESULTS: The results revealed that verbal memory tests were not disadvantageous to illiterate people. Rather non-verbal tasks such as the copy condition of the Simple Rey Figure Test and the Clock Drawing Test proved disadvantageous. CONCLUSION: Literacy appears to be beneficial to the development of visuospatial abilities. Neuropsychological tests that involve visuospatial function may not be efficient in discriminating dementia patients who are illiterate.

Genetic and Neuropsychological Factor Analysis on the Cognitive Function of the Elderly Population: APOE Genotype and Age Effect Analysis / 대한임상병리학회지

BACKGROUND: APOE (Apolipoprotein E) has been known as a risk factor for Alzheimer disease. Studies have demonstrated that different APOE E4 phenotypes appear to modulate the effects of cognitive aging in healthy elderly Caucasian populations. APOE E4 allele has different odds ratio risk for Alzheimer disease according to the age of the subject. Previously, we reported the APOE genotype effect on the cognitive function of the elderly populations without dementia. At this time we studied on the APOE E4 genotype combined with age. METHODS: We examined the different effects of APOE E4 allele on the neuropsychological func-tions of 201 community-dwelling Korean elderly individuals without dementia according age. We used the multivariate general linear model analyses. We made a model with the education year, APOE E4 presence, age (same or more than 70-year-old vs. less than 70-year-old) and APOE E4 presence combined with the age. RESULTS: APOE E4 allele did not show the significant effect on the neuropsychological test when ages are not considered. When the APOE E4 allele and age is combined, the recency, delayed recall and cued recall of the Elderly Verbal Learning Test (EVLT) shows a significant result from the multivariate general linear model anlayses. CONCLUSIONS: APOE E4 allele has a different effect on the cognitive function of the elderly popula-tion according to the age.

The Development and Validation of Korean Dementia Screening Questionnaire (KDSQ)

BACKGROUND: Dementia Screening Questionnaire is sensitive to detect early dementia patients and is not influenced by age and educational level. We conducted a case-control study to assess the validity and reliability of the Korean Dementia Screening Questionnaire (KDSQ) for the diagnosis of early dementia. METHODS: We developed KDSQ in a semi-structured manner with the questionnaire of 15 items about cognitive dysfunctions and 5 items of ischemic and depression scales respectively to evaluate the possibility of vascular dementia and degree of depression. It was adminis-trated to informants of 72 dementia patients (39 Alzheimer's disease, 33 vascular dementia) with Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scales of 0.5, or 1.0 and to those of 66 hospital control subjects. Test-retest data for the KDSQ were obtained from informants within a time interval of 20.82 days. RESULTS: The KDSQ was not influenced by education level, age, or sex. KDSQ score correlated with the K-MMSE (r=-0.75) and Short form Samsung Dementia Questionnaire (r=0.80). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the KDSQ was 88.9% (S.E.=0.028). KDSQ depression score was correlated with Geriatric Depression Scale (r=0.34). With respect to a diag-nosis of dementia, the KDSQ (cut-off point 6) had a sensitivity of 79% and a specificity of 80%. The KDSQ was found to have a high test-retest reliability (r=0.81) CONCLUSIONS: The KDSQ has high validity and reliability for the diagnosis of early dementias. It may be a useful tool to screen early stage of dementias.