FAST Scale

Functional Assessment Staging of Alzheimer’s Disease. (FAST)

Normal Aging

1. No difficulties, either subjectively or objectively.

Possible Mild Cognitive Impairment

2. Complains of forgetting the location of objects. Subjective word finding difficulties.

Mild Cognitive Impairment

3. Decreased job function evident to co-workers;
difficulty in traveling to new locations. Decreased organizational capacity.

• • expected duration for this stage 84 months approximant mental age 12+ years.

Mild Dementia

4. Decreased ability to perform complex tasks (e.g., planning dinner for guests), on occasion, handling personal finances (forgetting to pay bills), difficulty shopping, etc.

• • expected duration for this stage 24 months approximant mental age 8-12 years.

Moderate Dementia

5. Requires assistance in choosing proper clothing to wear for day, season, occasion.

• • expected duration for this stage 18 months approximant mental age 5-7 years.

Moderately Severe Dementia

6a. Difficulty putting clothing on properly without assistance.

• • expected duration for this stage 4.8 months approximant mental age 5 years.

6b. Unable to bathe properly; (e.g., difficulty adjusting bath water temperature)
occasionally or more frequently over the past weeks.*

• • expected duration for this stage 4.8 months approximant mental age 4 years.

6c. Inability to handle mechanics of toileting (e.g., forgets to flush the toilet, does not wipe properly or properly dispose of toilet tissue) occasionally or more frequently over the past weeks.*

• • expected duration for this stage 4.8 months approximant mental age 4 years.

6d. Urinary incontinence, occasional or more frequent. 

• • expected duration for this stage 3.6 months approximant mental age 3-4 years.

6e. Fecal Incontinence, (occasional or more frequently over the past week).

• • expected duration for this stage 9.6 months approximant mental age 2-3 years

Severe Dementia

7a. Ability to speak limited to approximately a half dozen different words or fewer, in the course of an average day or in the course of an intensive interview.

• • expected duration for this stage 12 months approximant mental age 1.25 years

7b. Speech ability limited to the use of a single intelligible word in an average day or in the course of an interview (the person may repeat the word over and over.)

• • expected duration for this stage 18 months approximant mental age 1 years.

7c. Ambulatory ability lost (cannot walk without personal assistance).

• • expected duration for this stage 12 months approximant mental age 1 years.

7d. Ability to sit up without assistance lost (e.g., the individual will fall over if there are no lateral rests [arms] on the chair).

• • expected duration for this stage 12 months approximant mental age 0.5-0.8 years.

7e. Loss of the ability to smile.

• • expected duration for this stage 18 months approximant mental age 0.2-0.4 years.

7f. can no longer hold up their head

• • expected duration for this stage 12 months approximant mental age 0-0.2 years.