A Direct Performance Test for Assessing Activities of Daily Living in Patients with Mild Degenerative Dementia: The Development of the ETAM and Preliminary Results

BACKGROUND: There are currently only a few performance tests that assess the capacity to perform activities of daily living. These measures frequently require a long time to administer, are strongly cognition oriented, or have not been adequately validated. METHODS: The Erlangen Test of Activities of Daily Living in Mild Dementia (ETAM) was developed in a 4-phase process that was based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). A pilot study was conducted on 30 subjects with mild dementia with a mean age of 80 years. The subjects' mean score on the MMSE was 21.5. Twenty-one of the 30 subjects were women. RESULTS: Ten items were developed and tested in the pilot study. The mean time required to complete the test was 26 min. The item analysis showed difficulties that ranged primarily from r = 0.28 to r = 0.79. The ETAM had a moderate correlation with the MMSE (r(MMSE) = 0.310) and a low correlation with the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15; r(GDS-15) = 0.149). CONCLUSION: The preliminary version of the ETAM is quick and easy to use and has predominantly satisfactory item characteristics. There still is the need to revise the items ‘giving directions’ and ‘making tea’ with regard to standardisation.