Authors (including presenting author) :
Cheung KY (1), Law ST (1), Lau HW (2)
Affiliation :
(1) Occupational therapy department, Shatin Hospital, (2) Occupational therapy department, Prince of Wales Hospital
Introduction :
Dementia is an age-related neurodegenerative disease, characterized by impaired cognitive functioning which interferes with an individual’s daily, social and occupational activities. It was believed that early screening of cognitive decline could provide timely intervention and maintain functioning of elderly, which can minimize the burden in social and medical systems.
Objectives :
This study aims at investigating (1) the correlations between HK-MoCA and HKBC in screening cognitive impairment and (2) the effects of age and educational levels on HK-MoCA and HKBC scores. It is hypothesized that in the two highly correlated tests, educational levels will have influence in HK-MoCA but not in HKBC while age will have influence on both assessment results.
Methodology :
60 subjects from the psychogeriatric unit who were referred for Occupational therapy were recruited. Among them, 40 of them were diagnosed with Dementia and 20 of them without the diagnosis were considered as control. The Hong Kong Montreal Cognitive Assessment (HK-MoCA) and Hong Kong Brief Cognitive test (HKBC) were conducted alternately within 7 days. 20 Occupational Therapists were invited to complete the qualitative survey on comparing the user experience of the two cognitive assessments in clinical settings. Ethical approval was obtained from the Joint Chinese University of Hong Kong–New Territories East Cluster Clinical Research Ethics Committee.
Result & Outcome :
HK-MoCA and HKBC are two highly correlated cognitive assessments. Despite the absence of statistical significant effect of age of the two assessments, a statistically significant correlation was found between educational level and HK-MoCA. The absence of such influence in HKBC could be explained by the fact that it is a test especially designed to cater for patients with lower literacy, with an aim to eliminate educational effects. When comparing the two tests, a higher diagnosis concordance rate was found in HKBC. In general, Occupational Therapists showed similar preference in using HK-MoCA and HKBC as cognitive screening assessment. In conclusion, HKBC is one of the options in considering cognitive assessment for patients with Dementia. Besides its strong correlation with HK-MoCA, which is the golden test for cognitive impairment, it is also more culturally relevant, cost-effective and feasible for use in Hong Kong clinical settings.
