Assessment of Semantic Memory in Normal Ageing Population and Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

Background: An individual's risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases like dementia increases with age.Aim and objectives: To devise an assessment tool for the assessment of semantic memory in normal aging & in patients with mild cognitive impairment & mild to moderate dementia to reach an understanding of the nature of their semantic memory difficulties.Patients & methods: This analytical cross-sectional research was performed on 60 Egyptian, Arabic-speaking subjects aged from fifty to seventy-five years. They were separated into three groups, arranged as follows: 20 patients diagnosed with dementia, 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), & 20 age- & sex-matched controls from the normal aging population. Patients selected from the Neurology Clinic for Memory and Neurocognitive Disorders, Cairo University, and four nursing homes and facilities for elderly care in the Greater Cairo area who were previously diagnosed with dementia and MCI. The study started in 2019 and lasted until 2021.Results: A statistically significant variance amongst the three examined groups was found regarding the scores of the semantic memory test. The cut-off level of 72.5 in the semantic memory test could discriminate between the MCI group and the dementia group with 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity. The semantic memory test demonstrated a reliability of 0.697, 0.630, and 0.652 in the normal group, MCI, and dementia, respectively.Conclusion: The semantic memory test designed in this study could successfully discriminate between the normal aging population, individuals with mild cognitive impairment, & individuals with dementia on semantic memory tasks.