Cognitive Profile of the Chinese Version of the Dementia Rating Scale for Chinese Elderly with Dementia

Dementia is a common disease among the elderly. The assessment of cognitive deficits plays a major role in the early detection of dementia, and early treatment is useful for slowing patients' functional deterioration. This study investigated the cognitive profiles of Chinese elderly with dementia in Hong Kong. A total of 35 normal elderly people and 41 subjects with dementia were tested using the Chinese version of the Dementia Rating Scale (CDRS). Moreover, cognitive profiles for the CDRS in different stages of dementia were developed using the mean CDRS scores. The optimal cut-off scores for the normal elderly, for the mild to moderate dementia group, and for the severe dementia group were identified. The results revealed that subjects with mild to moderate dementia had significantly poorer performances than normal subjects for initiation/perseveration (p = 0.000), the memory subscale (p = 0.000), and for the CDRS total score (p = 0.017). Subjects with severe dementia had significantly poorer performances than those with mild to moderate dementia on all CDRS subscales (p < 0.01), except for the construction subscale (p = 0.108).