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. 2023 Jul 21:10:1186502.
doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1186502. eCollection 2023.

Six-item cognitive impairment test (6-CIT)'s accuracy as a cognitive screening tool: best cut-off levels in emergency department setting

Francesco Salis  1 , Daniela Pili  2 , Manuel Collu  1 , Luca Serchisu  2 , Rosanna Laconi  2 , Antonella Mandas  1   2
Affiliations

Six-item cognitive impairment test (6-CIT)'s accuracy as a cognitive screening tool: best cut-off levels in emergency department setting

Francesco Salis et al. Front Med (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, elderly patients represent a significant number of accesses to the Emergency Department (ED). Working rhythms do not allow to perform complete cognitive analysis, which would, however, be useful for the health care. This study aims to define the optimal cut-off values of the six-item Cognitive Impairment Test (6-CIT) as a cognitive screening tool in ED.

Methods: This study included 215 subjects, evaluated at the Emergency Department of the University Hospital of Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy, from July to December 2021. The accuracy of 6-CIT as a cognitive screening tool was assessed by comparison with Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE).

Results: The correlation coefficient between the two tests was -0.836 (CI: -0.87 to -0.79; p < 0.0001), and 6-CIT showed AUC = 0.947 (CI: 0.908-0.973; p < 0.0001). The 8/9 6-CIT cut-off score presented 86.76% sensitivity (CI: 76.4-93.8) and 91.84% specificity (CI: 86.2-95.7), and Youden index for this score was 0.786.

Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that 6-CIT is a reliable cognitive screening tool in ED, offering excellent sensitivity and specificity with a 8/9 points cut-off score.

Keywords: 6-item cognitive impairment test; aging; cognitive impairment; emergency department; mini mental state examination; screening.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Correlation MMSE-6-CIT. 6-CIT, six-item cognitive impairment test; MMSE, mini mental state examination.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (6-CIT). 6-CIT, six-item cognitive impairment test; AUC, area under the curve.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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