The Cognitive Subscale of Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS-Cog) for Patients with Alzheimer's Disease in Korea

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to examine the utility of the ADAS-Cog, Korean version (ADAS-K-cog) for staging of dementia in Alzheimer disease (AD). We also studied the possible influence of age, sex, and education on a ADAS-K-cog. METHODS: A total of 70 patients with AD meeting the NINCDS-ADRDA criteria of probable AD were recruited. The ADAS-K-cog was administered to all AD subjects. Each patient was also rated on the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS). The probable AD patients were divided into three groups based on their GDS stage to evaluate the sensitivity of ADAS-K-cog to disease severity and their mean scores on ADAS-K-cog were compared. RESULTS: The subjects' age range was 65~93 years and their education range was 0~16 years. The total score of ADAS-K-cog and each item score differed significantly between each groups. The item score of orientation, expressive language, word finding difficulty, comprehension of spoken language and the ADAS-K-cog total score could classify severity of early AD patients efficiently. ADAS-K-cog had high correlations with scores on the GDS (Pearson's r=0.732) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (Pearson's r=-0.755). Multiple regression analysis revealed that performance on the Korean ADAS- Cog was uninfluenced by age or gender, and neither by education level. It's language items were best for monitoring the progression of dementia. CONCLUSION: Our results indicated that the ADAS-K-cog is useful for staging of AD and uninfluenced by education level, sex and age.