AUSBRA collaboration on the detection of cognitive impaiment in the elderly

• Grant number: 15/50309-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: April 01, 2016
• End date: March 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Agreement: University of New South Wales
• Principal Investigator: Ivan Aprahamian
• Grantee: Ivan Aprahamian
• Principal researcher abroad: Katrin Seeher
• Institution abroad: University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The world's population is ageing, leading to an increased prevalence of dementia in the elderly. To improve dementia detection rates in primary care, Brodaty et al. from UNSW Australia developed the General Practitioner Assessment of Cognition (GPCOG) in 2002. It is recommended as first line assessment by several national health services. Yokomizo et al from the University of Sao Paulo in collaboration with UNSW staff have validated the Brazilian version of the GPCOG and found that its original cut-points need to be adjusted due to the significantly lower level of education in Brazilian elderly. This is in line with the findings of an international GPCOG review driven by UNSW and University of Sao Paulo staff which is currently drafted for publication. Based on these findings we propose to investigate GPCOG's educational bias in detail by establishing the socio-demographic predictors ar the GPCOG task with the lowest discrimination between dementia and control participants in Brazil (i.e. clock drawing test, C01) and provide the most education-fair CDT scoring method for Brazilians. We also propose to collate GPCOG raw data from our interactional collaborators (23 cohorts from 20 countries, estimated N=7,000) and another Brazilian cohort from a current FAPESP funded project in order to establish country and setting specific adjustments for age, education, sex and socio-economic status. It will improve GPCOG's screening accuracy not only for Brazilians and Australians but result in more accurate and culturally fair dementia screening globally. (AU)