The development of an educationally independent screening instrument for dementia is most valuable for epidemiological studies. The Community Screening Instrument for Dementia (CSI-D) was applied to 120 subjects, with 30 matched for age in each of the four groups of mild to moderately demented, depressed, low-education and high-education normal control subjects. The internal consistency and interrater reliability of CSI-D were satisfactory. Correlation with the ten-word-list learning task, a test sensitive to early dementia, was high. CSI-D could differentiate the demented from nondemented subjects, but not the high- from the low-education control group. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed good test performance of CSI-D. In conclusion, the Chinese version of CSI-D is a valid, reliable and educationally independent screening instrument for dementia sensitive to detect early stage of the disease.
Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel