Psychometric Characteristics of the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) in a Sample of Iranian Elderly

The purpose of this research was to investigate the psychometric characteristics of the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) in a sample of Iranian elderly population. Using convenience sampling, 500 elderly individuals were selected from two senior centers including Kahrizak Geriatric Nursing Home (n=305) and Jahan-Didegan Elderly Charity Foundation (n=195). Then, 61 other individuals were investigated for test–retest reliability evaluation. In addition to the RUDAS, data were collected through Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE), Generic Depressed Scale (GDS), and European Quality of Life 5 Dimensions (EuroQul-5D). Data were analyzed was by Pearson correlation and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis methods. The findings indicates a signification correlation between the RUDAS and other scales (p0.001), and thus its appropriate convergent and discriminate validity. The 2-week test-retest reliability and Cronbach’s alpha for RUDAS were 0.88 and 0.77, respectively. The cut-off point, specificity and sensitivity were 20, 0.79, and 0.86, respectively. On the other hand, RUDAS factor analysis depicted its saturation for one factor. The RUDAS possess suitable psychometric characteristics to be used among Iranian elderly population.