A preliminary study of the validity of memory tests recommended by the Working Group for individuals with moderate to severe intellectual disability.
Two quick questions and a picture quiz can flag dementia in adults with moderate to severe ID, but bigger studies are needed.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Neuringer et al. (2007) tried out three quick memory checks on adults with moderate to severe intellectual disability. They wanted to see if the tests could tell the difference between normal aging and early dementia.
The team gave Autobiographical Memory questions, Orientation items, and a brand-new Picture Recognition Test to a small group. They watched who passed and who failed.
What they found
All three tools helped spot possible dementia. The Picture Recognition Test was the easiest to give and scored well.
Still, only a handful of people took part, so the numbers are only a first look.
How this fits with other research
Pyo et al. (2010) built on this idea. They swapped the original Picture Recognition Test for the r-PRMT. In adults with Down syndrome the new test gave clear yes-or-no scores, but in other ID groups scores overlapped. This mixed result sharpens the 2007 warning: know your client’s diagnosis before you trust the cut-off.
Delaney et al. (1998) came first with a four-part memory screen for any ID adult. G et al. narrowed the goal to dementia only, keeping the short format. The later study does not replace the older battery; it adds a quick red-flag tool you can tack on when decline is suspected.
Wilkinson et al. (1998) tried the Short IQCODE for the same job and found weak reliability. Their flop makes the 2007 success look brighter, but it also shows how hard it is to measure decline in this group.
Why it matters
You now have three fast probes you can slip into an annual review. Ask where the client lives, what they did last week, and show a short picture set. If two of three flop, refer on. Use the r-PRMT next if the person has Down syndrome, but stay cautious with other etiologies. These steps take ten minutes and may catch dementia early enough to plan supports.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Normal aging and Dementia of Alzheimer's Type (DAT) among higher functioning individuals with intellectual disability (ID) have been relatively well studied using a variety of cognitive tests. However, cognitive studies for lower functioning individuals with ID are scarce in the literature. The Working Group recommended the Test Battery for the Diagnosis of Dementia in Individuals with various level of ID. Few studies have investigated whether the Test Battery is useful to study dementia among individuals with moderate to severe ID. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the memory subtests of the Test Battery are useful for measuring memory function and studying DAT in individuals with moderate to severe ID. METHODS: We compared performances on the memory subtests in the Test Battery between 31 normal controls and 13 DAT patients with moderate to severe ID. Performance on the Picture Recognition Test was also compared between five normal controls and five DAT patients. This test was designed by our team to measure memory functions of individuals with moderate to severe ID. RESULTS: Among the memory subtests of the Test Battery, the Autobiographical Memory and the Orientation were found to be useful for studying normal and abnormal aging among individuals with moderate to severe ID. Preliminary data for the Picture Recognition Test demonstrated that these individuals properly responded to this test and the majority of DAT patients could be differentiated from the normal controls based on their performance. CONCLUSIONS: Further studies are necessary to improve usefulness of the memory subtests of the Test Battery for lower functioning individuals with ID. While the results suggest that the Picture Recognition Test may be more effective in discriminating individuals with DAT, given the very small sample sizes, a study with larger sample sizes should be undertaken to validate these findings.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2007 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2006.00886.x