Utility of TICS‐M for the assessment of cognitive function in older adults

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Abstract
Background Routine screening of high‐risk elderly people for early cognitive impairment is constrained by the limitations of currently available cognitive function tests. The Telephone Interview of Cognitive Status is a novel instrument for assessment of cognitive function that can be administered in person or by telephone. Objective To evaluate the determinants and utility of TICS‐M (13‐item modified version) for assessment of cognitive function in healthy elderly people. Methods The utility of TICS‐M was compared with more widely used MMSE and CAMCOG in a cross‐sectional survey of 120 older (62 to 89 years) UK adults. Results The TICS‐M cognitive test scores (27.97, SD 4.15) were normally distributed in contrast with those for MMSE and CAMCOG that had a negatively skewed distribution. TICS‐M scores were inversely correlated with age (r = −0.21) and with the NART fullscale IQ (r = −0.35), but were independent of years of education in this cohort. TICS‐M was highly correlated with MMSE (r = 0.57) and with CAMCOG (r = 0.62) scores. The time required to complete the test is comparable to MMSE and substantially less than CAMCOG. Conclusions The normal distribution of TICS‐M test scores suggest that this test is less constrained by the ceiling effect which limits the utility of MMSE and CAMCOG test scores in detecting early cognitive impairment. TICS‐M is an appropriate instrument to assess cognitive function in both research and in clinical practice. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.