Development and Concurrent Validity of the Short-Form CogDrisk Dementia Risk Assessment Tool

Abstract

Evidence-based dementia risk assessment is required to inform individual and policy-level dementia risk reduction interventions. We developed the CogDrisk Short Form (CogDrisk-SF) to assess dementia risk factors, for situations where time and resources are limited. To evaluate concurrent validity with the original CogDrisk, we conducted an online survey using a repeated-measures, counterbalanced design. Community dwelling participants (n = 647, 50.1% were female, mean age 62.2 years, age range 40–89) completed the survey. The mean(sd) score for CogDrisk-SF and the CogDrisk was 9.7 (5.3) and 9.9 (5.5), respectively. The intraclass correlation between the risk score obtained from CogDrisk and CogDrisk-SF was 0.92. Fish intake, insomnia and depression had percentage agreements of 79%, 87% and 89% respectively. Other items had >95% agreement except for loneliness (94%), hypertension (94%), cholesterol (93%), atrial fibrillation (91%) and cognitive activity (90%). Very high agreement between the CogDrisk-SF and original CogDrisk shows that CogDrisk-SF is valid for use in research and clinical practice.