JMIR Formative Research (Feb 2022)

Asynchronous Remote Assessment for Cognitive Impairment: Reliability Verification of the Neurotrack Cognitive Battery

  • Jennifer Rae Myers,
  • Jordan M Glenn,
  • Erica N Madero,
  • John Anderson,
  • Rachel Mak-McCully,
  • Michelle Gray,
  • Joshua L Gills,
  • John E Harrison

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2196/34237
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 2
p. e34237

Abstract

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BackgroundAs evidenced by the further reduction in access to testing during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent, growing need for remote cognitive assessment for individuals with cognitive impairment. The Neurotrack Cognitive Battery (NCB), our response to this need, was evaluated for its temporal reliability and stability as part of ongoing validation testing. ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to assess the temporal reliability of the NCB tests (5 total) across a 1-week period and to determine the temporal stability of these measures across 3 consecutive administrations in a single day. MethodsFor test-retest reliability, a range of 29-66 cognitively healthy participants (ages 18-68 years) completed each cognitive assessment twice, 1 week apart. In a separate study, temporal stability was assessed using data collected from 31 different cognitively healthy participants at 3 consecutive timepoints in a single day. ResultsCorrelations for the assessments were between 0.72 and 0.83, exceeding the standard acceptable threshold of 0.70 for temporal reliability. Intraclass correlations ranged from 0.60 to 0.84, indicating moderate to good temporal stability. ConclusionsThese results highlight the NCB as a brief, easy-to-administer, and reliable assessment for remote cognitive testing. Additional validation research is underway to determine the full magnitude of the clinical utility of the NCB.