Screening tools for dementia assessment in UK based ethnic minorities

Calia, C. (Assessor)

Activity: Academic talk or presentation types › Invited talk

Description

Aim: The present study investigated whether commonly used screening tools and assessments for
dementia were culturally appropriate for older adults from ethnic minorities (EM) groups living in the UK.
Methods: Both South Asian and British participants (N = 43) were assessed using the Cross-Linguistic
Naming Test, Mini Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination, Visual Short-Term Memory Binding Test
(VSTMBT), and the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale. Multi-Ethnic Acculturation Scale and
English proficiency, measured with a self-rated scale, were associated with the four respective. No
interpreters were used.
Results: While members from EM significantly differed from members of the ethnic majority group in
traditional neuropsychological tasks, their performance on the VSTMBT yielded results comparable to
those drawn from the ethnic majority group. Complex influences seem to drive the sensitivity of traditional
neuropsychological tasks to sociocultural factors.
Conclusions: This is the first study that subjects the VSTMBT to investigation in EM groups. Older adults
from EM showed no impact of their sociocultural backgrounds on the function assessed by this test.
However, other tests widely used for the assessment of EM populations proved sensitive to the investigated
sociocultural factors. Our results lend support to the suggestion that neuropsychological assessments must
abandon the one-size-fits-all notion when it comes to dementia risk detection among EM groups.

Period	26 Sept 2024
Event title	Cross-cultural and inclusive assessments for dementia: UK- China collaboration
Event type	Symposium
Degree of Recognition	International

Keywords

cross-cultural neuropsychology
demantia
ethnic minority
interpreters
screening tools

Documents & Links

This symposium will focus on recent work carried out as part of a collaboration between the group led by Professor Huali Wang from Peking University and Professor Mario A Parra’s collaboration network from the University of Strathclyde. The groups have advanced a research agenda that focuses on the investigation of the validity of new neurocognitive assessments in the early detection of cognitive impairments among older adults at risk of or with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). Aim We aim to bring together researchers from the medical, psychological, and engineering sciences at different career stages to explore the project's status and find further collaboration opportunities. We are interested in interdisciplinary collaborations that can yield new culturally valid and inclusive assessments (e.g., neurocognitive biomarkers based on EEG, Eye-Tracking, and functional assessments) to identify the continuum of neuropathological events underpinning the transition from normal ageing to dementia.