Does the computerized diagnosis AGECAT show good concordance with psychiatrists' diagnosis in community-dwelling subjects over 65?
The computerized diagnosis AGECAT is a reliable tool for epidemiological surveys and as a diagnostic guide for non-medical interviewers in the elderly.
Three studies are reported using the Geriatric Mental State in one of its community forms on a total of 647 subjects aged over 65 and living in their own homes. The concordance between the computer diagnosis AGECAT and psychiatrists' diagnosis is at least as good in these replication samples as in the original studies (Copeland et al. 1986). AGECAT has been shown to be useful for epidemiological surveys and as a diagnostic guide for non-medical interviewers.
Copeland et al. (Mon,) studied this question.