This is a two year study to validate the Spanish language version of two commonly used cognitive screens: the Folstein (1975) Mini Mental Status Exam (MMSE) and the Blessed (et al. 1968) Mental Status Exam (BMSE) with Spanish Speaking (SS) Mexican heritage Hispanic (MhH) elderly age 60 plus. In their combined format they will be identified as the Mental State Assessment Battery (MSAB) throughout the proposal. The Spanish language NSAB will undergo rigorous translation/back translation procedures and pretested with 20 SS/MhH age 60 plus subjects prior to going into the field. The project will proceed within three distinct phases, although these phases will overlap in time. Phase I will include the locating of 50 MhH and 50 Anglo suspected Alzheimer's disease/demented individuals and their subsequent cognitive acreening using the MSAB. Phase I will encompass the criterion assessment of these 100 subjects using a neurological examination and a neuropsychiatric examinaton employing the alcoholism, schizophrenia, effective disorders components of the Diagnostic Interview Survey (DIS). Phase III will entail the assessment of 100 normal Hispanic elderly age 60+ using the Spanish language MSAB and 100 Euro/Anglo normals with the English MSAB. In addition 10 percent of the highest MSAB scoring normals and 10 percent lowest scoring normals will receive the neurological and the neuropsychiatric criterion evaluation. The project will also document and translate into Spanish, all the procedures surrounding the administration of the MSAB as well as the neurological and neuropsychiatric evaluations. These meterials will be put into manual form for use with other programs serving Hispanic elderly populations. This project is seen as addressing an urgent need for the development of culture free/fair cognitive assessment instrumentation for use with this growing ethnic minority elderly population group.
| Lytton, W W; Kristan, W B (1989) Localization of a leech inhibitory synapse by photo-ablation of individual dendrites. Brain Res 504:43-8 |
