Metrics details. Currently, many patients suffering from dementia do not have a diagnosis when admitted to geriatric hospitals. This is the case despite an increased risk of complications affecting the length of stay and outcome. Unfortunately, many dementia screening tests cannot be used on geriatric inpatients, who are often bedridden.
Therefore, we aimed at evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of a small battery of bedside tasks that require minimal vision and fine motor skills in patients with suspected dementia. In this prospective study, the Bamberg Dementia Screening Test BDST was administered to a consecutive series of patients referred for neuropsychological testing.
The diagnosis of dementia was confirmed in and excluded in patients. Sensitivity and specificity for the first subtest ultra-short form , the first two subtests short form , and the total score of the BDST were obtained via receiver operating characteristic curves and compared with the sensitivity and specificity values of the Mini-Mental Status Examination MMSE.
For moderate dementia, it was possible to identify dementia cases with sufficient and excellent diagnostic quality by using the ultra-short and the short form. The BDST is able to detect dementia in geriatric hospital settings.
If the adaptive algorithm is used, administration time can be reduced to less than 2 min in most cases. Because no test materials have to be exchanged, this test is particularly suitable for infectious environments where contact between the examiner and the person being tested should be minimized.
