Characteristic profiles of instrumental activities of daily living in Chinese older persons with mild cognitive impairment.

Increasing evidence suggests that performance of the instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) can be impaired at the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) stage. Our study aimed at investigating the profiles of functional impairment in Chinese subjects with MCI. Subjects with MCI were categorized into single-domain amnestic MCI (a-MCI) (n=54) and multiple-domain amnestic MCI (md-MCI) (n=93) groups. Their functional scores of Disability Assessment of Dementia (DAD) were compared with those of cognitively normal elderly controls (NC) (n=78) and those with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) (n=85). Subjects with md-MCI had intermediate performance in IADL between the NC and those with mild AD. Subjects with a-MCI had functional scores similar to those of normal controls. Age, education, and global cognitive test scores were not associated with functional scores in MCI subjects. Our results demonstrated that Chinese older persons with md-MCI had impairment in IADL, as compared to NC and subjects with a-MCI. This finding suggests that assessment of IADL should be incorporated in the clinical evaluation of MCI.