1,721,046 research outputs found
Reducing Misclassification of Mild Cognitive Impairment Based on Base Rate Information from the Uniform Data Set
No full textAbstract
Background:
Establishing operational criteria for identifying cognitive impairment is important in order to improve the diagnostic accuracy of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and the relevant clinical and research practices. Currently, consensus on the psychometric approach for defining MCI based on base rate information is lacking.
Objective:
The aim of the current study was to define the criteria for characterizing possible and probable cognitive deficits based on the psychometric approach proposed by Brooks et al. (2009). We examined the prevalence of low scores on a number of cognitive measures using the Uniform Data Set Czech version (UDS-CZ 2.0) in a sample of healthy older adults. The second aim of the study was to validate Brooks’ psychometric approach on a different group of controls and patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI) to reduce the rate of misdiagnosis. Subsequently, we compared the prevalence of low scores on the UDS-CZ 2.0 to the standard psychometric criteria for identifying MCI defined by Jak et al. (2009).
Methods:
We computed the prevalence of low scores on the 14 subtests of UDS-CZ 2.0 in a normative sample of healthy older adults. Based on these results, we used Brooks’ criteria for possible and probable cognitive impairment and validated them on another sample of controls and a sample of aMCI patients. The accuracy of our results was compared to Jak et al.’s (2009) typical, liberal, and conservative criteria for identifying MCI.
Results:
The number of low scores was high and similar across all age and education groups.
Across all 14 measures, 71% of respondents, who were younger than 75 and had lower education, had one or more scores that were below 1 SD. This suggests that Jak’s typical and liberal criteria in identifying MCI have low specificity (high classification of healthy controls as aMCI). However, Jak’s conservative criterion showed similar results in comparison to the prevalence approach using a 1.5 SD cut-off.
Conclusion:
We confirm that there is a fair prevalence of low scores among healthy elderly individuals. The prevalence of low scores increases with older age and lower education. Our findings offer a psychometric approach and a computational tool to minimize the misdiagnosis of mild cognitive impairment
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Cross-cultural Examination of University Education and Ego Integrity in Late Adulthood: Implications for Policy and Practice.
No full textAnalysis and code for manuscript
Studies on education generally find that higher education is associated with positive consequences in various aspects of life. Nevertheless, studies focused on elderly people and their psychosocial health and development seldom view higher education as a decisive factor. Our aim was to explore the relation between higher education and ego integrity, a measure based on Erikson’s concept of psychological maturity in later life.
We used four national samples of non-institutionalised elderly people from Cameroon (N=238), China (N=254), Czech Republic (N=167), and Germany (N=240).
Relationships between ego integrity and several possible moderator variables were tested by multivariate regressions in each sample. Between subjects ANOVA was employed to test the differences in ego integrity at university educated and non-university educated people. We found that ego integrity is affected by culture in interaction with gender and the level of education attained. University educated people reported higher ego integrity than persons with lower education in three of four cultural samples, which suggests a relatively stable relationship between university education and ego integrity when controlling for gender, age, and working status. Our findings highlight the importance of education in late adulthood. In terms of policies and practice, our results underscore the importance of reduction in educational inequalities with the aim of improving access to higher education, the need for expanding opportunities for achievement of complete education in later life, and facilitation and support of lifelong learning
Reducing Misclassification of Mild Cognitive Impairment Based on Base Rate Information from the Uniform Data Set
No full textAbstract
Background:
Establishing operational criteria for identifying cognitive impairment is important in order to improve the diagnostic accuracy of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and the relevant clinical and research practices. Currently, consensus on the psychometric approach for defining MCI based on base rate information is lacking.
Objective:
The aim of the current study was to define the criteria for characterizing possible and probable cognitive deficits based on the psychometric approach proposed by Brooks et al. (2009). We examined the prevalence of low scores on a number of cognitive measures using the Uniform Data Set Czech version (UDS-CZ 2.0) in a sample of healthy older adults. The second aim of the study was to validate Brooks’ psychometric approach on a different group of controls and patients with amnestic MCI (aMCI) to reduce the rate of misdiagnosis. Subsequently, we compared the prevalence of low scores on the UDS-CZ 2.0 to the standard psychometric criteria for identifying MCI defined by Jak et al. (2009).
Methods:
We computed the prevalence of low scores on the 14 subtests of UDS-CZ 2.0 in a normative sample of healthy older adults. Based on these results, we used Brooks’ criteria for possible and probable cognitive impairment and validated them on another sample of controls and a sample of aMCI patients. The accuracy of our results was compared to Jak et al.’s (2009) typical, liberal, and conservative criteria for identifying MCI.
Results:
The number of low scores was high and similar across all age and education groups.
Across all 14 measures, 71% of respondents, who were younger than 75 and had lower education, had one or more scores that were below 1 SD. This suggests that Jak’s typical and liberal criteria in identifying MCI have low specificity (high classification of healthy controls as aMCI). However, Jak’s conservative criterion showed similar results in comparison to the prevalence approach using a 1.5 SD cut-off.
Conclusion:
We confirm that there is a fair prevalence of low scores among healthy elderly individuals. The prevalence of low scores increases with older age and lower education. Our findings offer a psychometric approach and a computational tool to minimize the misdiagnosis of mild cognitive impairment
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