高齢者の認知機能を評価する新パフォーマンステスト “トレイルメイキングペグテスト” の提案

抄録

Since early evaluation of mild cognitive decline in older adults is very important in the clinical settings of prevention for dementia, development of a convenient screening test for cognitive function is indispensable. The purpose of this study was to examine validity and reliability of a novel test for evaluating cognitive function “trail making peg test (TMPT)". This study was conducted in three issues: 1) associations of the TMPT, the trail making test (TMT) and the pegboard test with cognitive functions, 2) age and gender difference in the associations between the TMPT and cognitive functions, 3) reliability of the TMPT. Subjects were community-dwelling older adults including both men and women, and numbers of subjects in each issue were 88, 540 and 23, respectively. Our data indicated that 1) the correlation coefficient of cognitive function was higher with the TMPT (r = -0.682, p < 0.001) than with the TMT (r= -0.563, p < 0.001) and the pegboard test (r = -0.524, p < 0.001), 2) the correlations of the TMPT were significant independent of age and gender, and 3) the TMPT displayed a higher reliability (ICC = 0.78). These results suggest that the TMPT can be a convenient and useful tool for assessing cognitive function in older adults.