A comparative evaluation of the KDSQ-C, AD8, and SMCQ as a cognitive screening test to be used in national medical check-ups in Korea

Background: Korea has a periodic general health check-up program that uses the Korean Dementia Screening Questionnaire-Cognition (KDSQ-C) as a cognitive dysfunction screening tool. The Alzheimer Disease 8 (AD8) and Subjective Memory Complaints Questionnaire (SMCQ) are also used in clinical practice. We compared the diagnostic ability of these screening questionnaires for cognitive impairment when completed by participants and their caregivers. Hence, we aimed to evaluate whether the SMCQ or AD8 is superior to the KDSQ-C and can be used as its replacement. Methods: A total of 420 participants over 65 years and their informants were recruited from 11 hospitals for this study. The patients were grouped into normal cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia subgroups. The KDSQ-C, AD8, and SMCQ were completed separately by participants and their informants. Results: A receiver operating characteristic analysis of questionnaire scores completed by participants showed that the areas under the curve (AUCs) for the KDSQ-C, AD8, and SMCQ for diagnosing dementia were 0.75, 0.8, and 0.73, respectively. Regarding informant-completed questionnaires, the AD8 (AUC of 0.93), KDSQ-C (AUC of 0.92), and SMCQ (AUC of 0.92) showed good discriminability for dementia, with no differences in discriminability between the questionnaires. Conclusion: When an informant-report is possible, we recommend that the KDSQ-C continues to be used in national medical check-ups as its discriminability for dementia is not different from that of the AD8 or SMCQ. Moreover, consistent data collection using the same questionnaire is important. When an informant is not available, either the KDSQ-C or AD8 may be used. However, in the cases of patient-reports, discriminability is lower than that for informant-completed questionnaires.