Development and preliminary evaluation of the anxiety in cognitive impairment and dementia (ACID) scales

Abstract

The preliminary results suggest that the ACID-SR and ACID-PR can obtain reliable and valid measures of anxiety among individuals with cognitive impairment. Given the subjective nature of anxiety, it may be prudent to collect self-report of anxiety symptoms even among those with moderate cognitive impairment.

Norwegian version of the rating anxiety in dementia scale (RAID-N): a validity and reliability study

“…Both scales assess anxiety based on caregivers' observations. Two assessment scales were specifically designed to assess the severity of anxiety symptoms in people with dementia: the Anxiety in Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (ACID) scale (Gerolimatos et al, 2015), and the Rating Anxiety in Dementia (RAID) scale ).…”

“…The ACID scale was developed to assess anxiety in persons over 60 years of age with mild cognitive impairment or dementia and includes both a proxy (ACID-PR) and a self-report (ACID-SR) version (Gerolimatos et al, 2015). The assessment scale includes cognitive, behavioral, and physical symptoms of anxiety in 13 items.…”

“…The psychometric properties of ACID were examined in a small sample of older people living in long-term care (N = 44 for ACID-SR and N = 45 for ACID-PR). In addition, 38 professional caregivers were included for the proxy information (Gerolimatos et al, 2015).…”

“…The ACID-SR and the ACID-PR are weakly correlated with each other, perhaps due to different assessment methods. The authors suggest that self-reported anxiety symptoms are preferable when possible (Gerolimatos et al, 2015).…”

“…As "impaired concentration" is a shared symptom between anxiety and dementia, the criteria of concentration is excluded from the RAID scale (Bentvelzen, Aerts, Seeher, Wesson, & Brodaty, 2017;. About 25% of the items of the RAID are worry symptoms; thereby, its sensitivity is higher in identifying GAD than other anxiety disorders, but it has a lower specificity (Bentvelzen et al, 2017;Gerolimatos et al, 2015;. However, the RAID scale is developed for the assessment of the severity of anxiety symptoms and is a good screening tool to identify clinically significant anxiety in people with dementia.…”