The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III): linguistic and cultural adaptation into Russian

Abstract

Introduction. Timely identification of cognitive impairment is very important, with standardized screening instruments required to assess the cognitive status. However, the arsenal of such screening scales available to clinicians in Russia is limited and requires expansion. According to numerous international studies, the Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III) has the necessary sensitivity and specificity, which speaks well for developing and validating a Russian language version. The aim of the study was the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination III (ACE-III). Materials and methods. A forward and back translation was performed of three versions of the scale and the scoring guidelines. A preliminary version of the ACE-III was developed, pilot testing of the preliminary version was conducted, and a final Russian language version was then developed with the help of a philologist/linguist, and experts in neuropsychology and neurology, who work specifically with patients with cognitive impairments. Pilot testing of the preliminary version of the ACE-III involved 16 neurological patients at the Research Center of Neurology and the Pirogov National Medical and Surgical Centre, who were aged 3774 (60.25 10.8) years and 56% of whom were women. The patients clinical condition corresponded to the diagnostic criteria for cerebrovascular disease (n = 12), Parkinson's disease (n = 3) and spinocerebellar ataxia (n = 1). Results. Neither the subjects nor the examiners had any difficulty in understanding the instructions or the content during testing. Further work was done based on the results of the pilot testing, and three final versions of the scale (A, B and C) were accepted, as well as the scoring guidelines, a link to which is provided in the article. Conclusion. The obtained results indicate that the developed version of the ACE-III can be understood by the Russian-speaking population and can be used in clinical practice. At the time of article publication, research is being conducted to assess the psychometric properties of the final Russian language version.

Keywords

• neuropsychological assessment
• addenbrooke’s cognitive examination
• cognitive impairments
• screening
• validation
• linguistic and cultural adaptation