Behavioral and caregiver reaction of dementia as measured by the neuropsychiatric inventory in Nigerian community residents.

Background: The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) has been used to assess behavioral symptoms of dementia in the United States, Taiwan, Japan, and Italy.

Method: This report evaluates the use of the NPI to assess behavioral symptoms of dementia in a population of Yoruba, Nigerians aged 65 years and older who are subjects in the Indianapolis-Ibadan Dementia Project. In this study, the NPI, Blessed Dementia Scale, and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were used to assess Nigerian subjects with dementia. For this study the NPI was translated, back translated, and harmonized into Yoruba.

Results: The harmonized version of the NPI showed good interrater and test-retest reliability. The Cronbach alpha on 40 subjects was .80 for total severity score, .73 for frequency, and .73 for distress, indicating good internal consistency. The MMSE correlated with the NPI total score and severity scores of delusion, hallucination, and agitation, whereas the Blessed correlated with the NPI total score and severity scores of depression, anxiety, and nighttime behavior.

Conclusions: The NPI was found to be a reliable tool to assess behavioral symptoms and caregiver distress of dementia in the Yoruba. Behavioral disturbances were as common in the Yoruba patients with dementia as in studies in other countries that have used the NPI, but the pattern of behavioral disturbances and caregiver response varied among the countries.