Chinese Version of the Baylor Profound Mental Status Examination: A Brief Staging Measure for Patients with Severe Alzheimer’s Disease

BACKGROUND: A specialized instrument for assessing the cognition of patients with severe Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is needed in China. Objectives: To validate the Chinese version of the Baylor Profound Mental Status Examination (BPMSE-Ch). Design: The BPMSE is a simplified scale which has proved to be a reliable and valid tool for evaluating patients with moderate to severe AD, it is worthwhile to extend the use of it to Chinese patients with AD. Setting: Patients were assessed from the Memory Clinic Outpatient. Participants: All participants were diagnosed as having probable AD by assessment. Measurements: The BPMSE was translated into Chinese and back translated. The BPMSE-Ch was administered to 102 AD patients with a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score below 17. We assessed the internal consistency, reliability, and construct validity between the BPMSE-Ch and MMSE, Severe Impairment Battery (SIB), Global Deterioration Scale (GDS-1), Geriatric Depression Scale(GDS-2), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), Physical Self-Maintenance Scale (PSMS), Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR). Results: The BPMSE-Ch showed good internal consistency (α = 0.87); inter-rater and test-retest reliability were both excellent, ranging from 0.91 to 0.99. The construct validity of the measure was also supported by significant correlations with MMSE, SIB. Moreover, as expected, the BMPSE-Ch had a lower floor effect than the MMSE, but a ceiling effect existed for patients with MMSE scores above 11. Conclusions: The BPMSE-Ch is a reliable and valid tool for evaluating cognitive function in Chinese patients with severe AD.