Cross‐Validation of a Novel Apathy Measurement Model in a Diverse Ambulatory Cohort of Older Adults with Memory Complaints

Apathy is a psychological syndrome characterized by a loss of motivation, goal‐directed activity, and diminished emotion (Marin, 1990), which may mediate the relationship between depression and cognitive impairment (Funes et al., 2018) and be an early risk factor for dementia that precedes predementia syndromes including non‐amnestic mild cognitive impairment (NA‐MCI) and motoric cognitive risk syndrome (MCR) (Ceïde et al., 2020). While there is no gold standard measure of apathy, assessment tools vary from subscales of depression instruments to apathy specific questionnaires. Our group conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) in a pooled cohort of community and memory clinic older adults which identified a novel 2‐factor model that distinguishes apathy from depression. The goal of this study was to cross‐validate this novel apathy measurement model in a bilingual urban primary care clinical cohort.