Background/aims: The Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) is a brief cognitive screening test that was developed to detect dementia in multicultural populations. The RUDAS has not previously been validated in multicultural populations outside of Australia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the RUDAS in a multicultural sample of patients referred to Danish memory clinics.
Methods: Data were collected from 137 consecutive patients (34 with an immigrant background) in three Danish memory clinics. All patients were given the RUDAS as a supplement to the standard diagnostic workup.
Results: Diagnostic accuracy for the RUDAS [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.838] was similar to that of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE; AUC = 0.840). The cutoff score with the best balance of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy was <24/30 for the RUDAS (sensitivity 0.69, specificity 0.80) and <25/30 for the MMSE (sensitivity 0.76, specificity 0.83). In contrast to the MMSE, regression analyses revealed that the RUDAS was unaffected by factors related to the patients' immigrant backgrounds.
Conclusion: The RUDAS showed high specificity and proved to be less affected by cultural and linguistic factors than the MMSE, making it a particularly valuable tool when screening for cognitive impairment in elderly multicultural patient populations.
© 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.