摘要：Objectives. Apathy is a very common symptom in the institutionalized elderly and representsa condition of both clinical and public health importance. The Apathy EvaluationScale (AES) has been shown to be a valid and reliable tool for characterizing, quantifyingand differentiating apathy in various health conditions. The aims of this study were toestablish the validity and reliability of the Italian version of the AES, and to assess theseverity of apathy in a sample of Italian institutionalized geriatric patients.Method. Data were collected from clinical interviews using the AES informant version(AES-I). Associations between measures of apathy and depression, cognitive functioningand perceived quality of life were evaluated, as well as the effects of the living environmenton apathetic symptoms.Results. Multiple forms of reliability and validity (i.e. test-retest, internal consistency,discriminability of apathy rating from a standard measure of depression) were satisfied.Our results also show that the characteristics of the care setting may affect the severityof apathetic symptoms.Conclusions. The AES-I Italian version is a reliable and valid instrument for measuringapathy in Italian patients, also allowing a direct comparison with data gathered in othercountries.
关键词：apathy; cognition; depression; institutionalization; quality of life
