A Study of the Usefulness of Self‐Assessment Memory Scale (SAMS) for the Elderly in the Community

Background It is very important to detect a slight cognitive decline and start therapies at the very early stage as soon as possible. We have established a new method named the Self‐Assessment Memory Scale (SAMS), consisting of 8‐picture recall and 16‐word recognition test. This study examined the usefulness and validity of SAMS in older adults participating in a dementia prevention (J‐MINT PRIME Tamba) study. Method The subjects were 97 older adults aged 65 year or older (24 men). The subject was administered a test consisting of an 8‐picture recall and a 16‐word recognition test on a tablet twice on separate days. The SAMS index was calculatedby adding up the ratio of correct responses to both tests (max point is two). The correlation with the WMS‐R logical memory II (LMII) score was examined. Result The mean and standard deviation of SAMS for the subjects in this study by age groups 65‐69, 70‐74, 75‐79 and 80‐ were 1.71 ± 0.24, 1.55 ± 0.25, 1.36 ± 0.29 and 1.36 ± 0.29, respectively. The first and second attempt of SAMS showed a significant correlation with the LMII score. (R = 0.56 and R = 0.63 respectively, both showed p