Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 26, 2021
Date Accepted: Nov 21, 2021
Web-based Cognitive Testing in Psychiatric Research: Validation and Usability Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Cognitive impairments are features of many psychiatric disorders and impact functioning. A barrier in cognitive research of psychiatric disorders is the lack of large cross-disorder datasets. However, collection of cognitive data can be logistically challenging and expensive. Web-based collection may be an alternative, but little is known about who does and doesn’t complete web-based cognitive assessments for psychiatric research.
Objective:
The aims of this study were to develop a web-based cognitive battery for use in psychiatric research, validate the battery against an existing gold standard assessment and compare the characteristics of participants who chose to take part with individuals who did not respond.
Methods:
Tasks were developed by The Many Brains Project and selected to measure the domains specified by the MATRICS initiative. We have undertaken a cross-validation study in 65 participants with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and healthy controls to compare the web-based tasks with the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery. Following validation, we invited participants from two studies to complete the battery.
Results:
Correlations between web-based and MATRICS tasks ranged between 0.26 and 0.73. Of 961 participants, 887 (92%) completed at least one web-based task and 644 (67%) completed all tasks indicating adequate completion rates. Predictors of web-based participation included being female (OR=1.3, 95% CIs: 1.07-1.58), ethnicity other than White European (OR=0.66, 95% CIs: 0.46-0.96), higher levels of education (OR=1.19, 95% CIs: 1.11-1.29), diagnosis of an eating disorder (OR=2.17, 95% CIs: 1.17-4) or depression and anxiety (OR=5.12, 95% CIs: 3.38-7.83), and absence of a diagnosis of schizophrenia (OR=0.59, 95% CIs: 0.35-0.94). Lower performance on the battery was associated with poorer functioning (B=-1.76, SE=0.26, P<.001).
Conclusions:
Our findings offer valuable insights into the advantages and disadvantages of testing cognitive function remotely for mental health research.
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