Validity of the Korean Version of Informant Questionnaire on the Cognitive Decline in the Elderly(IQCODE)

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to prove the validity of the Korean version of the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly(IQCODE-K) as a screening test for Alzheimer's disease. METHOD: Informants of the elderly who visited the dementia clinic and the elderly living in community, were asked to complete IQCODE-K. Based on the final clinical diagnoses, performance of the the IQCODE-K in screening Alzheimer's disease was evaluated RESULTS: The IQCODE is showed high internal consistency and test-retesr reliability. Optimal cut-off score of IQCODE-K was 3.6, and the sensitivity and specificity at that score were 0.90 and 0.79. CONCLUSION: IQCODE-K is probably very useful to screen Alzheimer's disease. It may be also useful for the less well-educated people.