Properties of the telephone interview for cognitive status: Application in epidemiological and longitudinal studies

We evaluated the utility of telephone screening for dementia in epidemiologic research by comparing performance on the modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-m) with results from in-person neuropsychological measures in 67 elderly males. Longitudinal performance on the TICS-m was also evaluated over an average of 15 months in the same subjects. After comprehensive clinical evaluation, subjects were assigned to one of three diagnostic groups: normal, demented, or "mild-ambiguous" cognitive syndrome. As expected, the normal group scored highest on the TICS-m, followed in turn by the mild-ambiguous and demented groups. Among various neuropsychological measures, the Mini-Mental State Examination correlated most strongly with the TICS-m. The scores on the first and second administration of the TICS-m were significantly correlated for both the normal and demented groups. The normal and mild-ambiguous groups showed slight improvement on the second administration of the TICS-m, but the demented group showed a slight decline in their scores. Thus, the TICS-m is able to detect dementia and decline in cognitive function over time, and therefore appears useful for population studies as an economical alternative to standard in-person screening.