TitleRetention weighted recall improves discrimination of Alzheimer's disease.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2006
AuthorsBuschke, H, Sliwinski, MJ, Kuslansky, G, Katz, M, Verghese, J, Lipton, RB
JournalJ Int Neuropsychol Soc
Volume12
Issue3
Pagination436-40
Date Published2006 May
ISSN1355-6177
KeywordsAging, Alzheimer Disease, Discrimination, Psychological, Female, Humans, Male, Memory Disorders, Mental Recall, Neuropsychological Tests, Retention, Psychology, Severity of Illness Index
Abstract

<p>Impaired recall for early items (primacy) and late items (recency) on word list recall tests are seen in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We compared conventional scoring on the Telephone Instrument for Cognitive Status (TICS) recall list with scorings based on retention-weighted recall (RWR: each item weighted by its serial position) in older adults participating in a community-based aging study. Subjects with mild AD (N=18) did not differ from those without dementia (N=231) with respect to recency (46% vs. 59%, p = 0.2), but had impaired primacy (2% vs. 39%, p < .001) on word recall on the TICS. RWR scoring improved the effect size (1.52 SD) compared to conventional scoring (1.08 SD). With a fixed sensitivity of 85%, specificity was lower using conventional scoring (56%) than RWR (76%) scoring. Our findings suggest that optimized RWR scoring of word list free recall can improve detection of mild AD compared to conventional scoring.</p>

DOI10.1017/s135561770606053x
Alternate JournalJ Int Neuropsychol Soc
PubMed ID16903137
Grant ListAG03949 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
AG12448 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
HD-01799 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States