ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the reliability and validity of informant questionnaire on cognitive decline in the elderly(IQCODE) in Chinese elderly patients and to estimate the efficacy of IQCODE in the screening of patients with cognitive impairment.Methods Ninety three patients with cognitive impairment and 128 community-dwelling healthy elderly over 60 years old were assessed.Informants were interviewed with the short version of the IQCODE.Results The internal consistency coefficient of IQCODE was 0.83.The correlation coefficient of test-retest reliability was 0.86.The validity coefficient of IQCODE with mini-mental state examination and activities of daily living were-0.78 and 0.71 respectively.The scores of IQCODE of the patients varied with the degree of cognitive deficits,and the differences had statistical significance.But there was no significant difference among different types of senile dementia.The scores of IQCODE of the patients with cognitive impairment were closely correlated with the degree of cognitive deficits.Conclusions IQCODE is a reliable and effective measurement for the patients with cognitive impairment.It could discriminate the cognitive impairment patients from the normal cognitive ones,and is practical in screening.But it can not distinguish different kinds of dementia.