Background: Validated screening and assessment instruments for dementia in Arabic are totally lacking, hampering the development of dementia research in Arabic speaking populations. The 10/66 Dementia Research Group (DRG) has developed and validated a culture- and education-fair diagnostic instrument which is well suited to the older population in the Middle East who have a high rate of illiteracy [1]. The aim of the study is to validate 10/66 DRG diagnostic instrument in Arabic. Methods: For the estimation of a proportion of 92% - midway between the sensitivity of 94% and specificity of 90% estimated in 10/66 DRG first pilot study [1], the required sample size to achieve a maximal error of 65% is 200 persons. To account for the many instruments being validated, the sample size is increased to 300 equally divided between cases and controls. 150 participants older than 65 years with mild to moderate dementia and 150 age-, gender-, and education-matched controls are recruited from outpatient clinics, hospital- affiliated long-term care units, and community groups. Dementia is diagnosed by experienced clinicians based on DSM-IV criteria and dementia severity rated by Clinical Dementia Rating Scale. Trained interviewers, who are blinded to the cognitive status of the participants, administer the 10/66 diagnostic package to the participants and their caregivers. The sensitivity and specificity of the 10/66 diagnostic package is calculated. Results: Data collection is ongoing and will be completed in July 2012 to be presented at the conference. We performed preliminary data analysis on the first 50 participants, 30 female (60%) and 20 male (40%).The mean age is 76.6 years (SD 9.1). 20% of the participants are illiterate, 14% can read and write, 44% have completed primary to secondary education, and 22% had university education and above. The sensitivity of the 10/66 diagnostic package is 92.3% and specificity 97.3%. Conclusions: Preliminary analysis shows that 10/66 DRG diagnostic package has a high sensitivity and specificity. Reference: [1] Prince M, Acosta D, Chiu H, Scazufca M, Varghese M. Dementia diagnosis in developing countries: a cross-cultural validation study. Lancet 2003;361:909-17.

Phung K, Chaaya M, Atweh S, Waldemar G, Karam G, Ghusn H, et al. Validation of the 10/66 Dementia Research Group diagnostic instrument in Arabic: A Lebanese experience. Alzheimer's & Dementia. 2012;8(4, Supplement):S778-S9.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2013.08.125