The Clinical Significance of Subjective Memory Complaints in the Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: A Meta-Analysis
International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
Mitchell, A. J. (2008).
International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 23(11), 1191-1202.
This meta-analysis investigates the validity of subjective memory complaints for assessing cognitive impairment in individuals with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Not stated
Up to 2008
Not further specified
8
<div>Subjective memory complaints (SMCs) has a pooled sensitivity of 43.0% and a pooled specificity of 85.8% for dementia. For MCI, the pooled sensitivity of SMCs was 37.4%, and the pooled specificity was 86.9%. In community studies with a low prevalence, the positive and negative predictive values were 18.5% and 93.7% respectively for dementia and 31.4% and 86.9% respectively for MCI. Subjective memory complaints have modest diagnostic value; however, taken on their own, subjective memory complaints are "not an accurate method of establishing the presence of MCI or dementia but can help exclude cases" (p. 1200).</div>
