Assessing reliability of short and tick box forms of the ANU-ADRI: Convenient alternatives of a self-report Alzheimer's disease risk assessment

INTRODUCTION To assess the reliability of short versions of the Australian National University Alzheimer's Disease Risk Index (ANU-ADRI). METHODS A short form of the ANU-ADRI (ANU-ADRI-SF) was developed by assessing risk and protective factors with single questions where possible and with short forms of sub-questionnaires where available. The tick box form of the ANU-ADRI (ANU-ADRI-TB) was developed with unique questions for each risk and protective factor for Alzheimer's disease. The short versions were evaluated in an independent community sample of 504 participants with a mean age of 45.01 (SD = 14.85, range = 18-81). RESULTS The short versions demonstrated high reliabilities when compared with the ANU-ADRI. However, the proportion of misclassification was high for some risk factors and particularly for the ANU-ADRI-TB. DISCUSSION The ANU-ADRI-SF may be considered if less reliable questions from the ANU-ADRI-SF can be replaced with more reliable questions from the ANU-ADRI for risk/protective factors with high misclassification.