Development of a Novel Self-administered Cognitive Assessment Tool and Normative Data for Older Adults

Raphael J Monsch , Amélie C Burckhardt, Manfred Berres, Alessandra E Thomann , Michael M Ehrensperger, Luzius A Steiner , Nicolai Goettel
PMID: 29782389 DOI: 10.1097/ANA.0000000000000510


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Background

Preexisting cognitive impairment in surgical patients is one of the leading risk factors for adverse cognitive outcomes such as postoperative delirium and postoperative cognitive dysfunction. We developed a self-administered tablet computer application to assess a patient's individual risk for adverse postoperative cognitive outcomes. This cross-sectional study aimed to establish normative data for the CogCheck application.

Materials and Methods

Healthy volunteers aged 65 years and above were administered the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Geriatric Depression Scale, and the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease-Neuropsychological Assessment Battery to assess cognitive health. All participants completed the tablet computer application without assistance. Primary outcome measure was the test performance. Regression models were built for each cognitive domain score with the covariates age, sex and education in cognitively healthy subjects. Demographically adjusted standard scores (z-scores) were computed for each subtest.

Results

A total of 283 participants (155 women, 128 men) were included in the final analysis. Participants’ age was 73.8 ± 5.2 years (mean ± SD) and their level of education was 13.6 ± 2.9 years. Mini-Mental State Examination score was 29.2 ± 0.9 points, Geriatric Depression Scale score was 0.4 ± 0.7 points, and Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease-Neuropsychological Assessment Battery total score was 98.7 ± 5.7 points. Older age was associated with poorer performance in the visual recognition task and in Trail Making Test B (P<0.05 after Bonferroni-Holm adjustments).

Conclusions

This study provides normative data for a novel self-administered tablet computer application, ultimately designed to measure an elderly patient's individual risk for adverse postoperative cognitive outcome.