Assessing early to late stage dementia: the TSI and BANS-S scales in the nursing-home.

Background: The traditional assessment tools for dementia, such as the MMSE, have only limited ability to follow subjects with severe dementia because they show a floor effect. Specific observational and performance-based instruments were recently developed.

Objectives: To directly compare an observational scale to a performance-based instrument in moderate to severe dementia.