Abstract
We developed a new brief psychological assessment scale (Psychological Assessment Scale by Facial Expression for Demented People-Interview version : PAFED-I) for patients with severe dementia comparable to Functional Assessment Staging (FAST) stage 6 and 7. Moreover, we examined the reliability and validity of PAFED-I. PAFED-I consists of 18 items associated with changes in the patients' eyes (eye score) and 12 items associated with changes in their facial expressions (expression score) . The testers individually interviewed patients with severe dementia and evaluated each item. In the case of patients with FAST stage 6, the eye and expression scores showed sufficient internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. In addition, these scores significantly correlated to the Clinical Assessment for Spontaneity (CAS) score. In the case of patients with FAST stage 7, the eye score showed sufficient reliability and significantly correlated to the CAS score. We concluded that PAFED-I was useful for evaluating the spontaneity in severe dementia.
