Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Psychometric Validation of the Polish Version of Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS).

Background: There is a growing demand for sensitive and accurate screening tools for the early detection of cognitive impairment. The Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) has shown promise in multicultural populations. It may offer advantages over the widely used Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), which has limited sensitivity, particularly in assessing executive functions. The aim of this study was to adapt and validate the Polish version of the RUDAS and to compare its diagnostic performance with the MMSE in detecting cognitive impairment among patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD). Methods: A total of 126 subjects were evaluated, including 37 with AD, 30 with VaD, and 59 healthy controls. All participants were assessed with both the MMSE and RUDAS, and their test results were subsequently compared. Results: A strong correlation was found between total scores on the RUDAS and MMSE (RS = 0.81, p < 0.001). The area under the ROC curve was slightly higher for RUDAS (AUC = 0.94) than for MMSE (AUC = 0.89), suggesting better diagnostic accuracy. At a cut-off score of 25, RUDAS showed a sensitivity of 0.84 and a specificity of 0.87; MMSE showed a sensitivity of 0.74 and a specificity of 0.91. Conclusions: The Polish version of RUDAS demonstrates strong diagnostic utility and may offer a slightly more sensitive alternative to MMSE for dementia screening, especially in its early stages. Further normalization studies on larger and more diverse clinical populations are recommended.