ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the question as to whether, in a socialist country like present-day China, significant differences exist in the caregivers of the cognitively impaired versus those of the disabled. The opportunity to do a preliminary study of Chinese caregivers emerged as a result of a large-scale longitudinal psychiatric epidemiologic research program of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in Shanghai, China. The sequence of items and the scoring procedures between the Chinese Mini-Mental Status Exam (CMMSE) and the Mini Mental Status Exam are identical, except for minor modifications. A SAS-Mainframe computer program identical to that used in the Epidemiologic Catchment Area studies was applied to the Shanghai CMMSE data in order to calculate comparable rates of cognitive impairment as those published by the Yale-New Haven Epidemiological Catchment Area team of investigators. Translation and back translation of the MMSE were made by bilingual and bicultural members of the investigative team, following the procedures described in Yu et al.
