The validity, reliability and clinical utility of a performance-based executive function assessment in people with mild to moderate dementia

AbstractObjective: Performance-based evaluation of executive function by using real-world daily living activities is an important area of study. This approach has been used extensively in evaluating patients after stroke or traumatic brain injury and patients with schizophrenia. Most important is the fact that until now, there has been no validated performance-based evaluation of executive function in people with dementia.Methods: To address that knowledge gap, this study recruited 80 patients diagnosed with dementia and 80 demographically matched healthy controls. The participants were administered tests for evaluating their performance-based executive function (Chinese Multiple Errands Test), their instrumental activities of daily living (Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale, Chinese Version), and their functional disability (Chinese Version of the Disability Assessment for Dementia), along with a cognitive screening test (Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Hong Kong Version) and a neuropsyc...