Usefulness of the Touch Panel-type Dementia Assessment Scale (TDAS) and Evaluation of Correlation between Hemoglobin A1c and TDAS in Middle-Aged and Older Women

There is a suspected relationship between glycometabolism and cognitive function in nondiabetic women. In this study, we aimed to give further evidence of a correlation between glycometabolism and cognitive function with the use of a new computer-based rating scale for Alzheimer’s disease, TDAS. The subjects were 174 non-diabetic, middle-aged, older women. The levels of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c, the Japan Diabetes Society (JDS)), TDAS and Revised Hasegawa’s Dementia Rating Scale (HDS-R) were measured. Mean value of HbA1c, score of TDAS, time of TDAS and HDS-R were 5.2 ± 0.3 (n = 169), 0.9 ± 1.4 n = 173), 13.0 ± 1.4 min (n = 173) and 29.4 ± 1.0 (n = 174), respectively. The coefficient of the correlation (r) between age and HbA1c was 0.31, that between age and HDS-R was -0.21, that between age and score of TDAS was 0.33, and that between age and time of TDAS was 0.43. The correlations were significant. There was no correlation between HbA1c and HDS-R. The coefficient of the correlation (r) between HbA1c and score of TDAS was 0.16 (p = 0.042), and that between HbA1c and time of TDAS was 0.17 (p =0.027). The correlations between HbA1c and score of TDAS and between HbA1c and time of TDAS were significant. These results suggest that TDAS is very useful for evaluation of cognitive function and that there is a correlation between glycometabolism and cognitive function in non-diabetic middleaged and older women, even if their cognitive function is within normal limits.