| Author: | Tsang, Sau-chun |
| Title: | The reliability and validity study of the Cantonese version of Silver's test |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 1998 |
| Subject: | Senile dementia -- Diagnosis Cognition in old age -- Testing Psychological tests Psychodiagnostics Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Multi-disciplinary Studies |
| Pages: | xii, 108 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Some studies indicated that the older were the elderly, the higher was the prevalence rate of having dementia which might remain occult unless cognitive assessments were performed. As the elderly population is rising rapidly in Hong Kong, there is a need for cognitive assessment tools to screen the cognitive abilities of the elderly. A test named "Silver's Test", which was developed by Dr. C. P. Silver for assessing elderly people's ability and mental function, has been used widely by Occupational Therapists to assess the cognitive function of the elderly in Hong Kong. Although Wong et al. (1986) standardized the test into the "Abridged Version of Silver's Test" to suit the Hong Kong culture, it's content was documented mainly in English with only some terms in Chinese. Variations amongst therapists in the Cantonese translation are inevitable when they use it to assess the Hong Kong elderly people. Thus, it led to this study which aimed to establish a Cantonese version of Silver's Test with evidence supporting it's validity and reliability. In this study, a "Cantonese Version of Silver's Test (CVST)" was translated from the "Abridged Version of Silver's Test". The inter-rater reliability, test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the CVST were established in the study. Content validity (via an expert panel review) and criterion-related validity (via a criterion group of geriatric patients with dementia, and using Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) as a gold standard) were also established. Moreover, suggestions on the modification of the Silver's Test were studied. Seventy-eight (21 male and 57 female) different subjects were recruited through convenience sampling. Two raters were involved in assessing the subjects using both of the CVST and the MMSE. As demonstrated in Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient (rs) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), the results of the study showed that the CVST had a very good inter-rater reliability (rs = 0.9573, p = 0.000; ICC6 = 0.9966) and test-retest reliability (rs = 0.9693, p =0.000; ICC6 = 0.9769). The internal consistency of the test was also high (Cronbach's alpha = 0.8396). The average Content Validity Index (CVI) computed amongst the six experts of their responses on the suitability of the translation of test items was high (CVI = 0.9402). The Mann-Whitney U Test supported that the CVST could discriminate the demented subjects from the normal subjects as there were significant differences in the total scores of the test between the two groups of subjects. The best cutoff score for the samples recruited in this study was found to be the score of 34 which yielded a high sensitivity of 96.4% and an equally good specificity of 96.7%. There was also a high positive correlation (rs = 0.9218, p = 0.000) between the total scores of the CVST and the MMSE. Similarly, there was no significant difference between the sensitivity and specificity of both of the tests in screening subjects with diagnosis of dementia. Moreover, findings of the results suggested the need to shorten the administrative time of CVST by skipping the practical test items and by recalling a fictitious address after 5 minutes instead of 10 minutes. A test item on "3-steps command" was suggested to replace the test item "obey simple command (put out your tongue)". Furthermore, it was worthy to delete the test item "tell own name" and to add a test item for testing "immediate recall". Suggestions on further research were also recommended in the study. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b14422906.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 3.41 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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