The influence of schooling on performance in the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS)

Abstract

Studies have shown the influence of schooling on performance in the Dementia Rating Scale (DRS), suggesting that a single cut-off score is not appropriate for all groups of elderly people.ObjectivesTo verify the influence of schooling on the DRS in a Brazilian elderly population.MethodsThe DRS was applied to 118 cognitively healthy controls and to 97 patients with mild probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In order to analyze the influence of education, patients and controls were divided into four groups of schooling (GRSC): GRSC 1 with 1 to 4 years of schooling, GRSC 2 with 5 to 8 years of schooling, GRSC 3 with 9 to 11 years of schooling, and GRSC 4 with more than 11 years of schooling.ResultsIn the intragroup analysis, the performance of controls within each schooling group was compared, revealing a significant difference on total score and the subscales Attention, I/P and Conceptualization. The same procedure was used for the AD patients and a significant difference was observed for total score and the subscales Attention, Construction, Conceptualization and Memory. In the intergroup analysis, the results on total DRS and for the I/P, Conceptualization and Memory subscales showed significant differences in GRSC 1, 2, 3 and 4. The Attention subscale showed differences in GRSC 3 and 4, and on the Construction subscale in GRSC 1 and 4.ConclusionsThe results highlight the importance of norms for the DRS in the Brazilian population that take into account the effects of schooling on the scores of this scale.

Relationship between activities of daily living and cognitive ability in a sample of older adults with heterogeneous educational level

“…Complex cognitive abilities such as executive functions may be heavily influenced by educational level, with some evidence suggesting that these two factors are closely related. [ 20 21 ] In this sense, it is important to explore if the relationship between ADL and executive functions would also be present in a sample with a heterogeneous educational level. Accordingly, the aim of the current study is to investigate the relationship between executive functions and ADL in a sample of older adults and people with dementia from a developing country, with varying levels of educational achievement.…”

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.…”

“…Métodos: 120 funcionários e cuidadores saudáveis de um hospital, com idade entre 45 e 64 anos e com pelo menos quatro anos de escolaridade foram incluídos no estudo, os quais foram divididos igualmente em seis grupos. Havia três níveis educacionais para cada faixa etária (45-54 e 55-64 anos): 4 a 7 anos de estudo (4-7), 8 a 11 (8)(9)(10)(11) e 12 anos ou mais (12+). Os resultados são apresentados como valores médios, desvios padrão e percentis.…”

“…6 On the other hand, patients with AD had better performance on I/P. In Brazil, Porto et al 7,8 and Foss et al 9,10 conducted studies to adapt the scale and define standards for the Brazilian population. These studies confirm international findings regarding the influence of age and education on the results.…”

Uso do S-TOFHLA em pacientes com doença de Alzheimer leve e comprometimento cognitivo leve como medida da avaliação ao analfabetismo funcional

“…Em nosso meio, vários trabalhos avaliaram essa influência, desde testes de rastreio como o MEEM (Bertolucci et al, 1994;Brucki et al, 2003;Laks et al, 2007) , testes rápidos como fluência verbal Rocha, 2004;Radanovic et al, 2009;Yassuda et al, 2009) a baterias mais extensas, como a Dementia Rating Scale (DRS) (Mattis et al, 1988;Porto et al, 2003;Foss et al, 2005;Porto et al, 2010), The Short Cognitive Performance Test (SKT) (Flaks et al, 2006)…”