ObjectiveThis study was conducted to examine the following: whether patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) show impairments in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) as compared to controls; to identify the functional sub-domains of instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) that are affected in MCI and, finally, to identify the Seoul-Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (S-IADL) scale cut-off score that best differentiated between MCI and controls.MethodsThis study was carried out at the geropsychiatry clinic, university hospital. The study participants included 66 patients with MCI and 61 normal elderly. The S-IADL and Seoul-Activities of Daily Living (S-ADL) scales were administered to the main caregivers of all participants in order to assess everyday functioning.ResultsThe total S-IADL score was significantly higher in the patients with MCI [mean (SD) score=4.47 (2.06)] than in the controls [mean (SD) score=1.44 (1.65)] (p<0.001). The patients with MCI performed significantly worse on IADLs, such as the ability to use the telephone, prepare meals, take medication, manage belongings, keep appointments, talk about recent events, and perform leisure activities/hobbies (p<0.05). The S-IADL scale discriminated well between patients with MCI and controls (Area Under Curve=87%).ConclusionThe patients with MCI showed impairments in the ability to perform complex ADL in comparison to healthy controls. IADLs related to memory and frontal/executive functioning were particularly affected in MCI.

Background/Aims: We designed this study to examine subsyndromes in Korean patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Methods: Initial participants were 778 AD patients recruited from the Clinical Research Center for Dementia of South Korea and assessed via the Korean Neuropsychiatric Inventory. Those with ≧1 neuropsychiatric symptom were randomly divided into groups. Principal axis factoring with oblimin rotation was used to analyze group 1 inventory results, and maximum likelihood estimation extraction with Bollen-Stine bootstrapping was used for group 2. Results: The results of the EFA showed the presence of 4 subsyndromes: hyperactivity, affect, psychosis and apathy/vegetative symptom. The CFA results indicated this model was the best-fitting model for explaining these subsyndromes. Conclusion: Our model showed the best fit and identified 4 subsyndromes. This study might contribute to a clearer understanding of the neuropsychiatric symptoms in AD.