Dementia causes a significant decrease in survival, and the diagnosis of dementia is rarely reported on death certificates in Brazil.

Desempenho de uma população brasileira no teste de alfabetização funcional para adultos na área de saúde ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE:To analyze the scoring obtained by an instrument, which evaluates the ability to read and understand items in the health care setting, according to education and age. METHODS:The short version of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults was administered to 312 healthy participants of different ages and years of schooling. The study was conducted between 2006 and 2007, in the city of São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil. The test includes actual materials such as pill bottles and appointment slips and measures reading comprehension, assessing the ability to read and correctly pronounce a list of words and understand both prose passages and numerical information. Pearson partial correlations and a multiple regression model were used to verify the association between its scores and education and age. RESULTS:The mean age of the sample was 47.3 years (SD=16.8) and the mean education was 9.7 years (SD=5; range: 1 -17). A total of 32.4% of the sample showed literacy/numeracy defi cits, scoring in the inadequate and marginal functional health literacy ranges. Among the elderly (65 years or older) this rate increased to 51.6%. There was a positive correlation between schooling and scores (r=0.74; p<0.01) and a negative correlation between age and the scores (r=-0.259; p<0.01). The correlation between the scores and age was not signifi cant when the effects of education were held constant (rp=-0.031, p=0.584). A signifi cant association (B=3.877, Beta=0.733; p<0.001) was found between schooling and scores. Age was not a signifi cant predictor in this model p=0.584). CONCLUSIONS:The short version of the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults was a suitable tool to assess health literacy in the study population. The high number of individuals classifi ed as functional illiterates in this test highlights the importance of special assistance to help them properly understand directions for healthcare.

-Objectives: To verify the diagnostic accuracy of the Brazilian version of the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS) in the diagnosis of patients with mild dementia in Alzheimer's disease (AD); to verify the interference of the variables age and schooling on the performance of the DRS. Method: The DRS was administered to 41 patients with mild AD and to 60 controls. In order to analyze the effects of age and schooling on the performance of the tests, patients and controls were separated into three age groups and three levels of schooling. Results: The cutoff score of 122 showed a sensitivity of 91.7 % and specificity of 87.8 %. Age and schooling interfered in the DRS total score and in the scores of its subscales. Conclusion: The DRS showed good diagnostic accuracy in the discrimination of patients with mild AD from the control individuals. In the sample examined, the effects of schooling were more marked than age.KEY WORDS: Alzheimer's disease, dementia, neuropsychological assessment, education.

The prevalence of dementia in this study was higher than in other studies, particularly among younger elderly.

Background/Aims: We aimed to compare caregiver burden and distress in behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to investigate which factors contribute to caregivers' burden and distress. Methods: Fifty patients and their caregivers were invited to participate. Among the patients, 20 had a diagnosis of bvFTD and 30 had AD. Caregivers and patients were statistically equivalent for age, sex, education and dementia severity according to Clinical Dementia Rating. The protocol included the Short Zarit Burden Inventory, the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), Disability Assessment for Dementia (DAD), the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD), Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised, the Executive Interview with 25 Items, Direct Assessment of Functional Status and the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI). Results: In the NPI, caregivers of bvFTD patients reported a higher presence and severity of neuropsychiatric symptoms and caregiver distress compared to caregivers of AD patients. There was no significant difference in the perceived burden. In bvFTD, DAD and GAI scores were significantly correlated with burden, whereas in AD, burden was correlated with CSDD and NPI scores. Psychiatric symptoms were associated with distress in both groups. Conclusions: Caregivers of bvFTD patients experienced higher levels of distress than caregivers of AD patients. Patients' functional limitations were associated with burden of caregivers of bvFTD patients, whereas neuropsychiatric symptoms were associated with caregiver strain in both groups.

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Functional changes in bvFTD seem to be better documented by indirect measures.

It has been challenging to identify clinical cognitive markers that can differentiate patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) from those with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The short-term memory binding (STMB) test assesses the ability to integrate colors and shapes into unified representations and to hold them temporarily during online performance. The objective of this study is to investigate whether free recall deficits during short-term memory binding (STMB) test can differentiate patients with AD from those with bvFTD and controls. Participants were 32 cognitively intact adults, 35 individuals with AD and 18 with bvFTD. All patients were in the mild dementia stage. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were used to examine the diagnostic accuracy of the STMB. The results showed that AD patients performed significantly worse than controls and bvFTD patients in the STMB test, while the latter groups showed equivalent performance. The bound condition of the STMB test showed an AUC of 0.853, with 84.4% of sensitivity and 80% of specificity to discriminate AD from controls and an AUC of 0.794, with 72.2% of sensitivity and 80% of specificity to differentiate AD from bvFTD. Binding deficits seem specific to AD. The free recall version of the STMB test can be used for clinical purposes and may aid in the differential diagnosis of AD. Findings support the view that the STMB may be a suitable cognitive marker for AD.