The Development of Subjective Checklist Measuring Change in Global Cognition

Purpose: There is enough evidence to support an informant based survey in screening efforts for the identification of cases of cognitive changes in community dwelling elderly. Therefore, this study focused on items affecting daily living activities more among the cognitive abilities in the elderly. Methods: The main focus of the current study was to assess the feasibility, reliability, and validity of a subjective checklist measuring change in global cognition (SCC-GC) for differentiation of subjects with memory impairment from community dwelling elderly. A total of 61 elderly individuals were administered a newly developed SCC-GC in order to determine its utility in measuring cognitive changes in the elderly. Results: SCC-GC consists of 1-3 questions in each of six sub-domains: subjective competence of cognition and language (1 item), reading and writing (2 items), usage and learning of internet (3 items), familiar daily activity (3 items), drinking alcohol (1 item), TV comprehension (1 item). Factor analysis indicated the total score of SCC-GC correlated with depression, memory and mental status. Also, we found that the difference in the total score of the SCC-GC has a significant difference between the groups. Conclusion: Through this study, it is expected that the cognitive changes can be easily checked by using their own daily life patterns and used periodically to help prevent cognitive impairment and dementia.