Validation of At-Home Application of a Digital Cognitive Screener for Older Adults

Abstract

Standardized neuropsychological assessments of older adults are important for both clinical diagnosis and biobehavioral research. Over decades, in-person testing has been the basis for population normative values that rank cognitive performance by demographic status. Most recently, digital tools have enabled remote data collection for cognitive measures, which offers the significant promise to extend the basis for normative values to be more inclusive of a larger cross section of the older population. We developed a Remote Characterization Module (RCM), using a speech-to-text interface, as a novel digital tool to administer an at-home, 25-min cognitive screener that mimics eight standardized neuropsychological measures. Forty cognitively healthy participants were recruited from a longitudinal aging research cohort, and they performed the same measures of memory, attention, verbal fluency and set-shifting in both in-clinic paper-and-pencil (PAP) and at-home RCM versions. The results showed small differences, if any, for how participants performed on in-person and remote versions in five of eight tasks. Critically, robust correlations between their PAP and RCM scores across participants support the finding that remote, digital testing can provide a reliable assessment tool for rapid and remote screening of healthy older adults’ cognitive performance in several key domains. The implications for digital cognitive screeners are discussed.

The efficacy and practicality of the Neurotrack Cognitive Battery assessment for utilization in clinical settings for the identification of cognitive decline in an older Japanese population

“…These include nervousness experienced by patients when answering questions in a healthcare setting and experiencing difficulty hearing or understanding the questions (Saji et al, 2019 ). In recent years, digitized cognitive assessments have become more readily available as technology advances and have demonstrated good validity when compared to their traditional paper-based cognitive assessments (Björngrim et al, 2019 ; Arioli et al, 2022 ). Digitized test batteries allow patients to self-administer cognitive assessments using technology that they may already be familiar with, which helps to remove the heavy involvement of the healthcare provider from the cognitive assessment while maintaining sensitivity to cognitive decline in older patients.…”