Preliminary Psychometric Evaluation of the Korean Version of the Dementia Apraxia Test

Apraxia is a clinically significant but under-assessed deficit in dementia, yet existing Korean apraxia tools were developed for stroke and do not capture its neurodegenerative features. To address this gap, the Dementia Apraxia Test (DATE) was translated and culturally adapted into Korean (K-DATE), whose preliminary psychometric properties were examined. A total of 106 older adults (55 with dementia and 51 cognitively healthy) were assessed. The K-DATE discriminated between groups (44.55 vs. 52.18; p < .001) and correlated with the Korean Apraxia Screen of TULIA (ρ = .400). Internal consistency was acceptable (Cronbach’s α = .799), and test–retest (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = .819) and inter-rater reliability (ICC = .863) were good. Receiver operating characteristic analysis yielded an area under the curve of .749, with an optimal cut-off of 53.50 (sensitivity = .855, specificity = .510). These findings suggest the K-DATE is a promising apraxia screening tool if supported by further validation.