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Improved dementia screening for elderly with low education in South Korea using the Cognitive Impairment Screening Test (CIST)
Kyung Wook Kang, Gilsoon Park, Hyunsoo Kim, Soo Hyun Cho, Seong‐Min Choi, Kang‐Ho Choi, Hak-Loh Lee, Gwangsoon Shon et al.. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2025-05-14
Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies
< 0.001) for both measures. When distinguishing NC from MCI/DM, the CIST outperformed the K-MMSE, demonstrating a higher AUC (0.869 vs. 0.842) and F1-score (0.697 vs. 0.409). The CIST is a reliable and useful tool for assessing cognitive function, showing advantages over the K-MMSE in detecting cognitive decline among older adults without formal education. Further large-scale validation studies are warranted.
Key findings
- When distinguishing NC from MCI/DM, the CIST outperformed the K-MMSE, demonstrating a higher AUC (0.869 vs. 0.842) and F1-score (0.697 vs. 0.409).
- The CIST is a reliable and useful tool for assessing cognitive function, showing advantages over the K-MMSE in detecting cognitive decline among older adults without formal education.
- Further large-scale validation studies are warranted.
Why it matters
In older adults without formal education in South Korea, the Cognitive Impairment Screening Test outperformed the K-MMSE in distinguishing normal cognition from MCI or dementia, with a higher AUC and F1-score. The authors say further large-scale validation is warranted, so this is about improving screening, not treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
Study details
- Participants100
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 43/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Frontiers in Neuroscience) |
| Journal's citation record | 2 / 4 | Frontiers in Neuroscience: journal h-index 226 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 4 / 5 | 2025 — within 3 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 2 / 4 | 100 participants |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (participant count stated) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 1 / 7 | Cited 4 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 1 / 5 | 1.3 citations a year over 3 year(s) since 2025 |
| Impact for its field and year | 2 / 6 | Cited 2.5× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 0 / 6 | No other study in this library cites it |
| Still being cited | 1 / 4 | Cited 4 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 2 / 4 | Last-listed author Hosung Kim: h-index 37 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 2 / 3 | University of Southern California: institution h-index 1,521 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 1 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 3 institution(s) in 2 countries |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 40438629) |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Total | 43 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
- DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1599019
- PubMed: 40438629
- Original source →
- Free full text: Frontiers in Neuroscience →
Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Kang, K. W., Park, G., Kim, H., Cho, S. H., Choi, S., Choi, K., et al. (2025). Improved dementia screening for elderly with low education in South Korea using the Cognitive Impairment Screening Test (CIST). Frontiers in Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2025.1599019
Vancouver
Kang KW, Park G, Kim H, Cho SH, Choi S, Choi K, et al. Improved dementia screening for elderly with low education in South Korea using the Cognitive Impairment Screening Test (CIST). Frontiers in Neuroscience. 2025. doi:10.3389/fnins.2025.1599019. PMID: 40438629.
BibTeX
@article{kang2025-40438629,
author = {Kang, Kyung Wook and Park, Gilsoon and Kim, Hyunsoo and Cho, Soo Hyun and Choi, Seong‐Min and Choi, Kang‐Ho and Lee, Hak-Loh and Shon, Gwangsoon and others},
title = {{Improved dementia screening for elderly with low education in South Korea using the Cognitive Impairment Screening Test (CIST)}},
journal = {Frontiers in Neuroscience},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.3389/fnins.2025.1599019},
pmid = {40438629},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2025.1599019}
}
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