Early Dementia Questionnaire (EDQ): A Screening Instrument for early Dementia among elderly in Cairo governorate

Abstract Objectives To screen elderly participants for early Dementia in primary care in Egypt using a newly developed Early Dementia Questionnaire (EDQ) and comparing it with standard assessment tool, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). Design A cross-sectional study. Setting and Participants The study included 220 elder adults (both men and women) recruited from a primary healthcare center, the outpatient geriatric clinic at Ain Shams University hospitals and elderly clubs (Community dwelling) in Cairo Governorate, Egypt. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on a group of elderly patients using systematic random sampling. Elderly depression was excluded using the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Diagnosed cases of dementia and other mental or psychiatric disorders and illiterate participants were excluded from the study. A face-to-face interview was done using EDQ with the participants to elicit symptoms of early dementia. The participants were then assessed with MMSE using variable cut-off points according to age and educational level. Results Prevalence of dementia among the study participants was 81.4% by EDQ and 19.5% by MMSE. The EDQ demonstrated a sensitivity of 97.7% with specificity of 22.6%. Positive predictive value of EDQ was 23.5% with the negative predictive value of 97.6%. A significant association was found between possible dementia, hypertension, Mini Nutritional Assessment and urinary incontinence. Conclusion The EDQ is more sensitive than MMSE for screening of early dementia.