Aging & mental health
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Aging & mental health · Aug 2016
Validation of the Arabic Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (A-RUDAS) in elderly with mild and moderate dementia.
Validated screening tests for dementia in Arabic are lacking. Given the low levels of education among elderly in the Middle East and North Africa region, the commonly used screening instrument, the Mini Mental State Examination, is not best suited. Alternatively, the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) was especially designed to minimize the effects of cultural learning and education. The aim of this study was to validate the RUDAS in the Arabic language (A-RUDAS), evaluate its ability to screen for mild and moderate dementia, and assess the effect of education, sex, age, depression, and recruitment site on its performance. ⋯ The A-RUDAS is proposed for dementia screening in clinical practice and in research in Arabic-speaking populations with an optimal cutoff of ≤22.