The relationship between cognitive screeners and everyday functioning in amyloid-positive participants from the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort.

INTRODUCTION

We explored the relationship between cognitive screening outcomes and everyday functioning in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

METHODS

A total of 1228 amyloid-positive participants were included from the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort. Multiple linear regression analyses assessed the relationship between Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and everyday functioning (Amsterdam Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Questionnaire [A-IADL-Q-30]). To link cognitive screeners to functional impairment, we described difficulties across A-IADL-Q-30 items by MMSE and MoCA quartiles.

RESULTS

Both MMSE (B = 0.96, 95% confidence interval [CI]0.87-1.04) and MoCA (B = 0.79, 95% CI 0.68-0.89) were associated with A-IADL-Q-30. In the lowest MMSE (0-20) and MoCA (0-16) quartiles, filling in forms (both 96%) and managing the household budget (95%-93%) were mostly affected, whereas working (74%) and using a computer (52%-50%) were primarily affected in the highest quartiles (MMSE 28-30/MoCA 25-30).

DISCUSSION: In amyloid-positive participants, the association between cognition and daily functioning was moderate, reinforcing the importance of assessing both constructs in disease monitoring.

HIGHLIGHTS: Cognitive screening tools were moderately associated with daily functioning.Difficulties in complex daily tasks were present in the higher cognitive performance quartiles.Findings suggest that combining cognition and function is required for disease monitoring.