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. 2023 May 29;21(1):51.
doi: 10.1186/s12955-023-02132-y.

Agitation and aggression in people living with dementia and mild cognitive impairment in shared-housing arrangements - validation of a German version of the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory-Short Form (CMAI-SF)

André Kratzer  1 , Jennifer Scheel-Barteit  2 , Janissa Altona  3 , Karin Wolf-Ostermann  3   4 , Elmar Graessel  5 , Carolin Donath  5
Affiliations

Agitation and aggression in people living with dementia and mild cognitive impairment in shared-housing arrangements - validation of a German version of the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory-Short Form (CMAI-SF)

André Kratzer et al. Health Qual Life Outcomes. .

Abstract

Background: The Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory-Short Form (CMAI-SF) is a 14-item scale for assessing agitation and aggression, derived from the original 29-item CMAI, and completed by a proxy. Because the CMAI-SF has not yet been validated in German language, the aim of this study is to explore its construct validity.

Methods: Baseline data from a cluster-randomized trial to evaluate a non-pharmacological complex intervention for people living with dementia (PlwD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) were analyzed. The study sample consisted of 97 shared-housing arrangements (SHAs) in Germany, comprising N = 341 residents with mild to severe dementia and MCI. Trained nursing staff collected data by proxy-rating the CMAI-SF, Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Nursing Home Version (NPI-NH), and QUALIDEM. They also conducted the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA).

Results: In an exploratory factor analysis, three factors emerged: "aggressive behavior", "verbally agitated behavior", and "physically non-aggressive behavior". The CMAI-SF total score showed good internal consistency (α = .85), and the factors themselves showed adequate internal consistency (α = .75/.76/.73). The CMAI-SF showed convergent validity with the NPI-NH agitation item (r = .66) and the NPI-NH "agitation & restless behavior" factor (r = .82). Discriminant validity was confirmed by a low (r = .28) correlation with the NPI-NH apathy item. Quality of life decreased significantly with agitation, as the CMAI-SF showed a moderate negative correlation with the QUALIDEM total score (r = -.35).

Conclusions: The 14-item CMAI-SF is a time-efficient, reliable, and valid assessment instrument. Three factors emerged that were similar to those already found in nursing home samples for the original CMAI and the CMAI-SF and in day care samples for the CMAI-SF. The findings provide preliminary evidence that the CMAI-SF can be used instead of the CMAI to reduce time, costs, and burden in future trials.

Trial registration: The DemWG study from which data were used to draft this manuscript was prospectively registered on 16 July 2019 at ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN89825211).

Keywords: Aggression; Agitation; CMAI; CMAI-SF; Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory; Dementia; Mild cognitive impairment; Reliability; Shared-housing arrangements; Validity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distribution of the CMAI-SF total score. Illustration of the absolute number of participants (y-axis) with the respective CMAI-SF score (x-axis). Higher scores indicate more pronounced agitation and aggression, range: 14–70
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Scree plot for the principal component analysis (PCA) of the CMAI-SF total score
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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