Functional cognitive assessment scale (FUCAS): a new scale to assess executive cognitive function in daily life activities in patients with dementia and mild cognitive impairment.

Background: Several tests have been developed to examine performance of demented patients in daily life activities. However, most of them are based either on the subjective evaluation of performance by the patient him/herself, or on the reports of relatives. Functional Cognitive Assessment Scale (FUCAS) is a new reliable (alpha > 0.89 - 0.92) cognitive-behavioral scale that assesses executive function in daily life activities directly in patients with dementia.

Aims: This study aimed at testing FUCAS' internal consistency of items, criterion-related validity, interrater reliability, discriminative ability, and effect of age, sex, and education on FUCAS scores.

Results: Criterion-related validity was supported by significant correlations between FUCAS, CAMCOG, MMSE, and FRSSD. The interrater reliability of FUCAS' total score for two raters was r 0.997 and we found no significant effect of age, sex, or education on FUCAS' total performance. Discriminant analysis has identified that FUCAS was able to sufficiently discriminate the patients with MCI from those with moderate-severe dementia.

Conclusion: FUCAS is a useful and reliable diagnostic tool for MCI. Cognitive-behavioral assessment such as that provided by FUCAS can provide objective information that can serve to enhance the quality of clinical decision-making.