Researchers estimate that more than 55 million people around the world live with dementia. Dementia is an umbrella term for diseases affecting a person’s abilities to remember, think, and communicate. Currently, the most common type of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease.
With all types of dementia, early diagnosis is important. Although there is currently no cure for any kind of dementia, early diagnosis helps physicians tap into medications and other options available to help slow disease progression.
One such group is from Murdoch University in Western Australia, where researchers have developed a new test where people self-report their concerns in six different cognitive areas — such as memory, concentration, and language — to help determine a person’s dementia risk.
Their findings were published in the journal Age and Ageing.To develop this new screening test called the McCusker Subjective Cognitive Impairment Inventory (McSCI), Sohrabi and his team focused on measuring a person’s subjective cognitive decline.
Subjective cognitive decline is when a person self-reports worsening brain functions such as memory loss, confusion, and thinking.
Previous studies have correlated subjective cognitive decline to a higher risk for mild cognitive impairment and dementia, as well as Alzheimer’s disease progression. However, the measures available in the field were not robust enough to be used in clinical practice and with individuals. As such researchers work very hard to develop a measure that can be used in both research and clinical practice and with outstanding accuracy. During the study, researchers found the McSCI screening tool can identify individuals with above-average levels of subjective cognitive decline with a 99.9% accuracy.
It is a questionnaire that should be completed under a clinician’s supervision as the score could be misleading for those without such education and expertise. The higher the score on the McSCI, the more concerned one is (about) reporting their cognitive abilities.
However, the McSCI does not ask only about memory. It does ask about several cognitive functions that our research and others have shown to be important. In addition, it does provide cut-off scores for general practitioners and clinicians that can help to decide whether they should do any further assessments on their patients. Additionally, researchers developed the McSCI to be open access, allowing it to be used by doctors and researchers at no cost.
The introduction of a well-validated self-report measure like the McSCI-S could be a useful tool in early detection and treatment,” he explained. “I also appreciate the study’s comprehensive approach in developing and validating the McSCI-S. Its excellent internal consistency and significant associations with established objective cognitive measures underscore its potential utility in both clinical and research settings.”
This enthusiasm is tempered with caution. First, the reliance on self-reported data, while valuable, can be susceptible to various biases. Factors such as suboptimal awareness of deficits, mood disorders, personality traits, and the inherent subjectivity of self-assessment can impact the accuracy of the McSCI-S. Moreover, the cut-off score of ≥24, although chosen for its high sensitivity, has relatively low specificity, raising concerns about false positives. These issues may impact the integration of the McSCI-S into clinical practice.
