Influence of Socio-Demographic Characteristics on DRS-2 Performance in Spanish-Speaking Older Adults

Abstract

The present study compared the performance of English- and Spanish-speaking healthy controls (HCs) on the Spanish translation of the Dementia Rating Scale-Second edition (ST-DRS-2) and examined the classification accuracy of the ST-DRS-2 and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) with an age- and education-matched clinical sample. In contrast to previous findings with English-speakers, a stronger relationship was observed between ST-DRS-2 Total scores and education than with age, and despite being matched on both of these variables, English-speaking HCs significantly out-performed their Spanish-speaking counterparts on the ST-DRS-2. The greatest between-group difference was found on the Memory subscale, wherein the majority of errors committed by Spanish-speaking HCs were significantly related to level of acculturation. ST-DRS-2 Total and Memory subscale scores produced greater classification accuracy than the MMSE; however, ST-DRS-2 Total scores yielded the greatest corresponding rates of sensitivity and specificity. Normative data are provided and recommended to improve the ST-DRS-2's diagnostic accuracy with Spanish-speakers.

Normative data for middle-aged Brazilians in the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale

“…As aforementioned, the results of this study confirm the influence of education level on the performance on DRS. 3,[8][9][10]20,21 Regarding the subtests, this influence was stronger on the CONCEPT subscale and moderate on the I/P and ATT subscales.…”

Spanish version of the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale‐2 for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment

“…Our findings showed that being male, older and obtaining lower WAT scores were associated with poor performance on the MDRS‐2. The influence of age and education on MDRS‐2 scores has been widely demonstrated in the literature (Rilling et al ., ; Katsarou et al ., ; Strutt et al ., ; Lavoie et al ., ). We found a strong influence of gender on the global scale and the IP subscale, with women scoring higher than men.…”

“…() provided age‐ and education‐corrected norms of MDRS derived from a sample of 623 community‐dwelling Caucasian over 55 years old. Like with most neuropsychological instruments, younger and better educated individuals obtain higher results on the MDRS (Bank et al ., ; Rilling et al ., ; Strutt et al ., ); however, the effect of gender has been controversial (Chan et al ., ; Lyness et al , ; Pedraza et al ., ; Lavoie et al ., ). Moreover, it should be noted that reading level is a stronger predictor of cognitive performance than years of education among Spanish‐speaking individuals (Contador et al ., ), and cognitive function is influenced by socioeconomic status across the lifecourse (Turrell et al ., ).…”

Normative Data for the Dementia Rating Scale-2 in the French-Quebec Population

“…Indeed, several authors have documented the significant association between age and DRS score, with younger subjects performing better than older ones (e.g., Baird, 2006;Bank, Yochim, MacNeill & Lichtenberg, 2000;Pedraza et al, 2010;Rilling et al, 2005;Strutt et al, 2012). A positive correlation between education level and performance on the DRS was also consistently reported (e.g., Bank et al, 2000;Lyness, Hernandez, Chui & Teng, 2006;Pedraza et al, 2010;Rilling et al, 2005;Strutt et al, 2012). The effect of gender, however, is less clear.…”

“…Indeed, although the two groups were matched for years of education, their educational experience was not necessarily comparable. Recently, Strutt et al (2012) found that American English-speaking subjects out-performed age-and education-matched American Spanish-speaking subjects assessed with a Spanish translation of the DRS-2. The greatest difference between the two groups was found on the Memory subscale, where most errors of Spanish-speaking participants were committed on three specific orientation items: current president, governor and mayor, items significantly related to their level of acculturation.…”