Reliability and validity of the Severe Impairment Battery (SIB) in Korean dementia patients

This study was conducted to examine the reliability, validity and clinical utility of the Severe Impairment Battery (SIB) for a Korean population. 69 dementia patients with Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) stages 2 or 3 were participated in this study. The SIB, Korean version-Mini Mental State Examination (K-MMSE), CDR, and Seoul-Activities of Daily Living (S-ADL) were administered. The validity of the SIB was confirmed by evaluating the correlation coefficients between the SIB and K-MMSE, CDR, S-ADL, which were found to be significant. Cronbach's alpha for the total SIB score and each subscale score showed high significance, and the item-total correlation for each subscale was also acceptable. The test-retest correlation for the total SIB score and subscale scores were significant, except for the praxis and orienting to name. The total SIB score and subscale scores were examined according to CDR. The results suggest that the SIB can differentiate the poor performances of severely impaired dementia patients. On the basis of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC), it can be concluded that the SIB is able to accurately discriminate between CDR 2 and 3 patients. The results of this study suggest that the SIB is a reliable and valid instrument for evaluating severe dementia patients in Korean population.