Development of a Short Form of the Severe Impairment Battery

doi:10.1097/00019442-200511000-00011

The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

Volume 13, Issue 11, November 2005, Pages 999-1005

https://doi.org/10.1097/00019442-200511000-00011 Get rights and content

Objective

The authors sought to develop a short form of the Severe Impairment Battery (SIB).

Methods

Authors describe the development of an empirically-derived short form of the SIB (SIB–S) by use of data from 191 subjects with severe dementia in the United States and France.

Results

Mean (standard deviation) Mini-Mental State Exam scores for the American and French samples were 7.7 (4.8) and 5.7 (3.4), respectively, and original SIB scores were 71.87 (18.34) and 58.38 (26.86), respectively. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted separately and in combination for the two samples, to determine the number of clinically meaningful factors. An eight-factor model, explaining 60.2% of the common variance, was selected. The eight constructs were described as: expressive language, memory (verbal and nonverbal), social interaction, color-naming, praxis, reading and writing, fluency, and attention. Derived SIB–S scores were 38.41 (9.12) and 29.79 (13.17) for the American and French samples, respectively.

Conclusions

The original SIB is a valid and reliable research tool developed to enable reliable assessment of patients with severe dementia; it takes approximately 30 minutes to administer. The SIB–S takes only 10–15 minutes to administer, making it more appropriate for use in patients with very severe dementia, while it maintains the attributes of the original SIB.

Section snippets

Subjects

SIB data were available from two samples (total N = 191). Sample 1 consisted of 87 individuals living in Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Twenty-six individuals were participants in the clinical study “Serotonergic Pharmacotherapy for the treatment of Agitation in patients with Dementia” (SPAD), which has been previously described.²¹ The remaining 61 individuals in Sample 1 were subjects from the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. A

RESULTS

The mean age (standard deviation [SD]) of the American sample was 77.1 (10.5) years, and the mean age of the French sample was 87.2 (7.8) years. The majority of subjects were women (American sample: 60.8%; French sample: 86.5%). The mean MMSE scores for the American sample and the French sample were 7.7 (4.8) and 5.7 (3.4), respectively, and for the SIB scores were 71.87 (18.34) and 58.38 (26.86), respectively. The two groups were significantly different in age (t_[189] = 7.4; p <0.001),

DISCUSSION

There are very few scales that are appropriate for the assessment of cognitive functioning in patients with severe dementia. The significant cognitive and behavioral dysfunction typically seen in patients with scores in the lower half of the MMSE range (i.e., <15) presents a challenge to the accurate and reliable measurement of cognitive abilities. There are three scales that have been shown to be particularly useful with this population: the SIB, The Severe Cognitive Impairment Profile (SCIP),

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Citation Excerpt :
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The French sample was recruited with the help of Marie-Pierre Hervy, M.D., at Kremlin Bicêtre Hospital; Anne-Sophie Rigaud, M.D., Ph.D., at Broca Hospital; Laurent Teillier, M.D., at Sainte Perine Hospital; François Piette, M.D., at Charles Foix Hospital, as well as Michel Roudier, M.D., Ph.D., and Jamal al-Aloucy, at Charles-Richet Hospital.

The research reported in this article was supported in the United States by grants from the National Institute on Aging (AG05133) and the National Institute of Mental Health (MH59666, MH65416, and RR-00056) and in France by INSERM and by the Lundbeck Laboratory, with partial support from Eisai Laboratory.

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Regular Research ArticleDevelopment of a Short Form of the Severe Impairment Battery

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Subjects

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

Clin Geriatr Med

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology

J Psychiatr Res

The impact of dementia on our societies and current possibilities of prevention

International Journal of Geriatric Psychopharmacology

Epidemiologie des démences

Severe dementia: a common condition entailing high costs at individual and societal levels

Int J Geriatr Psychiatry

Clinical features and assessment of severe dementia: a review

Eur J Neurol

Assessment of the severely impaired patient: description and validation of a new neuropsychological test battery

Psychol Assess

Severe impairment battery: a potential measure for AD clinical trials

Assessing the severely impaired dementia patient: functional correlates of the Severe Impairment Battery

J Clin Exp Neuropsychol