Objective: To validate the revised version of the Quick Cognitive Screening Test (QCST).
Design: Cross-sectional.
Setting: Senior homes; hospital; college campus.
Participants: Participants (N=377; 114 men, 263 women) were recruited comprising healthy controls (n=201; 40 men, 161 women), subjects with dementia (n=93; 34 men, 59 women) including Alzheimer disease (n=73) and vascular dementia (n=20); subjects with psychiatric illness (n=35, 15 men, 20 women), specifically schizophrenia or bipolar disorder; and subjects with other neurologic conditions (n=48, 25 men, 23 women) such as traumatic brain injury (n=12) and cerebrovascular disease (n=31). Diagnoses were confirmed by physicians using appropriate criteria. Recruitment was done in the northeastern region.
Interventions: Not applicable.
Main outcome measures: In an effort to examine the reliability and validity of the revised QCST, participants were administered the revised QCST with a number of standardized measures (ie, Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive, Mini-Mental State Examination, Tests of Oral Fluency, Trail-Making Test, and Functional Activities Questionnaire).
Results: The results revealed that the revised QCST discriminated between healthy controls and the neuropsychiatric participants. Additionally, the revised QCST significantly correlated with other standardized measures, confirming the revised QCST's reliability and validity as a screening instrument for subjects with cognitive deficits.
Conclusions: The revised QCST provides the clinician with a short yet reliable screening instrument in detecting cognitive deficits in subjects with dementia and other neurologic conditions.