Reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the Frontal Assessment Battery in patients with the frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia

Abstract

Patients with the frontal variant of frontotemporal dementia (fv-FTD) exhibit deficits of executive functions. However, no single executive function task that might be used to detect the executive function deficits in fv-FTD patients has been established as yet. The frontal assessment battery (FAB) devised by Dubois et al. (2000) has been reported to be a quick and simple bedside screening test that is sensitive for differentiating between FTD and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The present study was conducted with the aim of ascertaining the reliability and validity of the Japanese version of the FAB among Japanese patients with fv-FTD. The Japanese version of FAB was given to patients with mild fv-FTD (n = 18) and those with AD (n = 18). The test-retest reliability was evaluated after a 3-week interval by the same interviewer. Data from the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (Keio version: KWCST) were also collected to ascertain the validity of the FAB. The Japanese version of the FAB exhibited good internal reliability (Cronbach's α: 0.70, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.50-0.84) and good test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.89, 95%CI = 0.77-0.95). Significant correlations were observed between the total FAB score and the category achieved (r = 0.454, P < 0.05) and number of perseveration errors (number of errors that were perseverations; r = 0.719, P < 0.01) in the KWCST. A cut-off of 10 for the total FAB score yielded the highest sensitivity (85%) and specificity (92%) for discriminating between patients with fv-FTD and AD with the highest positive likelihood (12.0, 95%CI = 2.6-55.4). The Japanese version of the FAB offers promise as an easy and quick bedside screening test to distinguish fv-FTD from AD.

Psychometric Properties of the Taiwanese (Traditional Chinese) Version of the Frontal Assessment Battery: A Preliminary Study

“…On the other hand, the test-retest reliability of the TFAB was good, and this result confirmed the findings of previous studies (Appollonio et al, 2005;Dubois et al, 2000;Kim et al, 2010;Kugo et al, 2007;Mok et al, 2004;Nakaaki et al, 2007). For example, Kim et al (2010) examined healthy participants to assess the reliability of the KFAB and found good test-retest reliability (r ¼ .82, p < .001).…”

“…For example, the internal consistency of the FAB has been evidenced as fair (Dubois et al, 2000) when evaluating a larger sample of patients with frontal lesions. A recent study from Japanese researchers (Nakaaki et al, 2007) revealed that the internal consistency of the FAB was also fair when examining patients with frontotemporal dementia. In an Italian population, Appollonio et al (2005) recruited 364 healthy participants who were aged 20 to 94 years old.…”

Korean Version of Frontal Assessment Battery: Psychometric Properties and Normative Data

“…A previous study reported similar results [14] . Although prehension behavior is reportedly useful in discriminating other types of dementia, such as frontotemporal dementia [12,16,17,20] and vascular dementia [18] from normal elders, it may not be suitable for the early detection of dysexecutive syndrome in AD due to this ceiling effect [14] . Therefore, Mok et al [15] suggested that prehension behavior should be replaced by other brief executive tests.…”

“…A higher score means a better performance, and the maximum possible sum of the scores is 18 (scores on each item range from 0 to 3). The FAB's reliability and validity have been demonstrated by studies of various neurodegenerative diseases [15][16][17][18][19][20] , and FAB score has been correlated with the blood flow in the frontal lobe [21] . The FAB provides as much information about the presence of executive dysfunction as the EXIT-25 can [22] but takes less time to complete and is less frustrating for patients.…”

Frontal Assessment Battery and Brain Perfusion Imaging in Early Dementia

“…For this study, we used the Japanese version of the FAB described by Kugo et al [10] . The reliability of the Japanese version of the FAB is good to excellent, and its validity is, to some extent, established [9,10] .…”