Sammanfattning
The elderly population is growing, and we need short cognitive instruments to screen for
dementia. The widely used MMSE has some limitations, and better instruments should be aspired
for. The TYM was designed to take minimal operator time to administer, test a reasonable range of
cognitive functions, and be sensitive to mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The aim of this pilot study
was to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of the Norwegian version of TYM (TYM-N), and
compare it with MMSE.
Method: Patients (n=16) who were referred to dementia assessment at the neurology department and
old age psychiatry department at Haugesund hospital filled out the TYM test. The test results were
compared with the final diagnosis based on ICD-10.
Results: Mean age was 66.5 y (range 52-89), mean completion time 13.3 minutes (range 6-30), and
mean score 32.2 point (range 14-47). Using 42 points as cut off, TYM-N had a specificity of 56 % for
AD (64 % positive predictive value) and the sensitivity was 100 %. For all cases of dementia the
specificity was 83 % (91 % positive predictive value), and the sensitivity was 100 %. Inter-rater
reliability was also 100 %.
Conclusion: We found high sensitivity and specificity for detecting dementia, but lower specificity for
AD than in previous studies. The study sample was small, which limits the generalizability of results.
TYM may, however, be a good alternative to MMSE as it has the advantage of measuring more
cognitive domains, takes short time to administer, and is not influenced by hearing loss.