Functional Assessment Staging (FAST) in Korean Patients with Alzheimer's Disease

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Na, Hae-Ri^a | Kim, Sang-Yun^{b; *} | Chang, Young-Hee^b | Park, Moon-Ho^c | Cho, Sung-Tae^d | Han, Il-Woo^e | Kim, Tae-You^f | Hwang, Sul-A.^a

Affiliations: [a] Department of Neurology, Bobath Memorial Hospital, Seongnam, Korea | [b] Department of Neurology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Clinical Neuroscience Center, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul, Korea | [c] Department of Neurology, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Korea | [d] Department of Urology, Hallym University, Seoul, Korea | [e] Department of Neurology, Hyoja Geriatric Hospital, Yongin, Korea | [f] Department of Neurology, Willis Hospital, Pusan, Korea

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: SangYun Kim, MD. PhD., Department of Neurology, Clinical Neuroscience Center, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, 300 Gumi-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Korea 463-707. Tel.: +82 31 787 7462; Fax: +82 31 787 6815; E-mail: neuroksy@snu.ac.kr.

Abstract: Functional Assessment Staging (FAST) was devised to meet the need for a more brief patient-derived rating scale for evaluating changes in functional performance and activities of daily living skills in all the stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). FAST was administered to 464 patients with probable AD according to the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Diseases and Stroke/Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association (NINCDS-ADRDA) criteria. The patients were also evaluated using the Korean version of the Mini-Mental Status Examination (K-MMSE), the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), the Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB), the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), the Barthel Activities of Daily Living (B-ADL), and the Seoul-Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (S-IADL). For patients with moderate to severe dementia, the Korean versions of the Severe Impairment Battery (SIB-Ko) and Baylor profound mental status examination (BPMSE-Ko) were also administered. There were significant correlations between the FAST and the K-MMSE scores (r= − 0.71, p< 0.001), between the FAST and the SIB-Ko scores (r= − 0.54, p< 0.001) and between the FAST and the BPMSE-Ko scores (r=− 0.46, p< 0.001). The FAST was also correlated with the CDR, the CDR-SB, the B-ADL, and the S-IADL (p< 0.001). Ultimately, FAST is a reliable and valid assessment technique for evaluating functional deterioration in AD patients throughout the disease course. Moreover, the findings of the present study suggest that the FAST elucidates a characteristic pattern of progressive, ordinal, and functional decline in AD in Korean AD patients with dementia.

Keywords: AD, FAST, severe dementia, staging

DOI: 10.3233/JAD-2010-100072

Journal: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 151-158, 2010