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Supervised digital neuropsychological tests for cognitive decline in elderly: usability and clinical validity
Francesca Lunardini;
Matteo Luperto;
Marta Romeo;
Nicola Basilico;
Katia Daniele;
Domenico Azzolino;
Sarah Damanti;
Carlo Abbate;
Daniela Mari;
Matteo Cesari;
N Alberto Borghese;
Simona Ferrante
ABSTRACT
Background:
Dementia is a major and growing health problem and early diagnosis is key.
Objective:
With the ultimate goal of providing a monitoring tool that could be of support in the screening for cognitive decline, we developed a supervised digitized version of two neuropsychological tests: Trail Making Test and Bells Test. The system consists in a web application that implements a tablet-based version of the tests, and an innovative vocal assistant that acts as the virtual supervisor to test execution. A Replay functionality is added to allow inspecting user’s performance after test completion.
Methods:
To be able to deploy the system in a non-supervised environment, extensive functional testing of the platform was carried out, together with a validation of the tablet-based tests with the twofold aim of evaluating system usability and acceptance, and investigating the concurrent validity of computerized assessment compared with the corresponding paper-and-pencil counterparts.
Results:
Results obtained from 83 older adults showed a very high system acceptance, notwithstanding the patients’ reduced familiarity with technology. The system software was successfully validated. System concurrent validation reported a good ability of the digital tests to retain the same predictive power of the corresponding paper-based tests.
Conclusions:
Altogether, the positive results pave the way to the deployment of the system to a non-supervised environment, thus representing a potential efficacious and ecological solution to support clinicians in the identification of early signs of cognitive decline.
Citation
Please cite as:
Lunardini F, Luperto M, Romeo M, Basilico N, Daniele K, Azzolino D, Damanti S, Abbate C, Mari D, Cesari M, Borghese NA, Ferrante S
Supervised Digital Neuropsychological Tests for Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: Usability and Clinical Validity Study