Use of the Dementia Assessment Sheet for Community-based Integrated Care System 21 items among Chinese community-dwelling older adults.

Aim: The objective of this study was to verify the reliability and validity of the Dementia Assessment Sheet for Community-based Integrated Care System 21 items (DASC-21) among Chinese community-dwelling older adults, and to explore the related factors for dementia screening.

Methods: The study adopted a cross-sectional design, and a total of 1152 participants aged ≥60 years were recruited from 26 locations in China. All data were collected using questionnaires through face-to-face interviews. The logistic regression model was used to evaluate the effect factors of DASC-21 for dementia screening. The receiver operating characteristic curves were used to determine the optimal cut-off points and the accuracy of the DASC-21 for dementia and mild cognitive impairment screening.

Results: For test-retest reliability, the Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.873 (P < 0.001). In the criterion-related validity, the DASC-21 scores were significantly and negatively correlated with the Mini-Mental State Examination (r = -0.663, P < 0.001) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (r = -0.565, P < 0.001) scores. The results of the receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that there were different optimal cut-off values for different age groups. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were 95.6% and 90.3% for dementia and mild cognitive impairment screening using DASC-21 after considering related effect factors.

Conclusions: The DASC-21 was confirmed to be a valid and reliable instrument for dementia screening among Chinese community-dwelling older adults. Our results suggested that the age, education level and 2-week prevalence were important effect factors for dementia screening using the DASC-21. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2021; 21: 705-711.