ABSTRACT
ObjectiveTo analyze the feasibility， reliability and validity of the disability assessment for dementia scale for the elderly. MethodsA total of 290 dementia patients from 17 survey sites in 13 districts and counties of Chengdu were enrolled by convenient sampling method， and they were assessed using demographic data inventory， Mini-Mental State Examination （MMSE）， Neuropsychiatric Inventory （NPI）， Physical Self-Maintenance Scale （PSMS） and disability assessment for dementia scale for the elderly. Cronbach's α coefficient， Spearman-Brown coefficient， Guttman split-half coefficient and test-retest reliability were used to evaluate the internal consistency of above scales. Criterion-related validity of the scale was analyzed based on MMSE， NPI and PSMS. ResultsA total of 276 patients （95.17%） completed valid questionnaires. The intraclass correlation coefficient of the total score and each dimension were between 0.828~0.976， the Spearman-Brown coefficient were between 0.790~0.917， the Guttman split-half coefficient were between 0.812~0.857， and the Cronbach’s α coefficient were between 0.737~0.886. The cognitive function dimension score was positively correlated with the MMSE score （r=0.948， P<0.01）， the mental behavior symptom dimension score was positively correlated with the NPI score （r=0.893， P<0.01）， and the daily living ability dimension score was positively correlated with the PSMS score （r=0.997， P<0.01）. The dimensions scores were positively correlated with the total score of the scale （r=0.634~0.841， P<0.05）. ConclusionDisability of dementia assessment scale has good feasibility， reliability and validity， which is a reliable tool to assess senile dementia and disability.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To study the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure of rural families in Xiaochang County of Hubei province, in order to explore the influential factors of catastrophic health expenditure. Methods: By using a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling to conduct a household survey, this paper randomly selects a total of a-bout 1,222 households of 4,673 people from 9 villages of 3 different towns in Xiaochang county of Hubei province, in order to compare the rate and severity of catastrophic health expenditure before and after joining the New Rural Coop-erative Medical Scheme ( NRCMS) , and it uses binary logistic regression model to analyze the influential factors of catastrophic health expenditure. Results: After joining the NRCMS, the rate, average gap and relative gap of cata-strophic health expenditure have all declined within the sampled areas; the influential factors of catastrophic health expenditure are household income, the number of working family members, the number of hospitalizations in family members, and the number of chronic patients among family members. Conclusion: With the increase of household in-come in the rural areas of Xiaochang County, both the rate and severity of catastrophic health expenditure have de-creased. In order to significantly reduce the catastrophic health expenditure in the rural areas of Xiaochang County, the government should perfectly improve the NRCMS's compensation mechanism for chronic outpatients' costs and re-duce the proportion of self-pay patients from low-income families.
ABSTRACT
Objective:To examine factors that may have impact on the Mini-Mental State Examination ( MMSE) screening validity, which could lead to further establishing the general model of the MMSE score in Chinese health elderly and to improve the screening accuracy of the existing MMSE reference. Methods:Based on the data of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey ( CLHLS ) , the MMSE scores of 19 117 normal elderly and 137 dementia patients who met the inclusion criteria were used for the analysis. The area under the curve ( AUC) and validity indexes were used to compare the screening accuracy of various criteria. Multiple linear regression was used to identify factors that had impact on the MMSE score for both the normal and dementia elderly. Descriptive analysis was performed for differences in the MMSE scores by age trends and gender between the normal and dementia elderly. Results:The AUC of MMSE was≥0 . 75 ( P<0 . 05 ) . The MMSE score of the normal elderly declined nonlinearly as the age grew older(male:R2 =0. 924, P<0. 05; female: R2 =0. 951, P<0. 05), and increased nonlinearly as the education level rose(male: R2 =0. 948, P <0. 05; female: R2 =0. 859, P<0. 05). The females had significantly lower MMSE scores than the males, with a faster decline trend with age than the males (95%CI of female partial regression coefficient was not overlapped with 95%CI of male partial regression coefficient) . The dementia elderly showed a much lower MMSE score ( male:difference of Z score:-1 . 573 , P<0 . 05;female:difference of Z score:-1 . 222 , P<0 . 05 ) and ten-ded to with a faster decline speed than that of the normal elderly (95%CI of dementia partial regression coefficient included 95%CI of normal partial regression coefficient) . Conclusion:The screening validity of MMSE in CLHLS is not affected by educational level. The analysis of factors that may impact on the MMSE screening validity are gender, age, vision and residence which with validity identification. These four fac-tors can be used as assist tool of MMSE in the screening of dementia to improve the screening accuracy.