Front Public Health. 2025 Aug 29;13:1600131. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1600131. eCollection 2025.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Detecting cognitive impairment in low-educated and marginalized populations may result in under- or over-estimation of diagnoses due to reliance on non-validated approaches and normative data. This study validates and standardizes TabCAT-BHA for older adults living in the Andean region of Peru using regression-based normalization.
METHODS: Two hundred fifty-eight participants were assessed with the MMSE, RUDAS, and TabCAT-BHA. Classified as either cognitively healthy or impaired based on Clinical Dementia Rating criteria.
RESULTS: By incorporating sex, place of residence, age, and years of education as covariates, the TabCAT-BHA demonstrated greater accuracy in detecting cognitive impairment (AUC = 75.3%) compared to the MMSE (AUC = 66.4%) and RUDAS (AUC = 71.4%). After incorporating only significant sociodemographic predictors, TabCAT-BHA obtained better AUC (77.4%) compared to MMSE (66.6%) and RUDAS (71.9%).
DISCUSSION: The TabCAT-BHA proves to be a valid tool for detecting cognitive impairment, and incorporating sociodemographic factors improves its accuracy in marginalized settings of Peru.
PMID:40951388 | PMC:PMC12425762 | DOI:10.3389/fpubh.2025.1600131
Authors
Kate Possin, PhD
Professor of Neurology
Elena Tsoy, PhD
Clinical Neuropsychologist
Serggio Lanata, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Neurology
