%0 Journal Article
%@ 2291-5222
%I JMIR Publications
%V 8
%N 9
%P e17963
%T Supervised Digital Neuropsychological Tests for Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: Usability and Clinical Validity Study
%A Lunardini,Francesca
%A Luperto,Matteo
%A Romeo,Marta
%A Basilico,Nicola
%A Daniele,Katia
%A Azzolino,Domenico
%A Damanti,Sarah
%A Abbate,Carlo
%A Mari,Daniela
%A Cesari,Matteo
%A Borghese,Nunzio Alberto
%A Ferrante,Simona
%+ Nearlab, Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Via Giuseppe Colombo 40, Milano, 20133, Italy, 39 3334335004, francesca.lunardini@polimi.it
%K aging
%K Bells Test
%K computerized testing
%K dementia
%K early diagnosis
%K eHealth
%K mild cognitive impairment
%K neuropsychological assessment
%K Trail Making Test
%D 2020
%7 21.9.2020
%9 Original Paper
%J JMIR Mhealth Uhealth
%G English
%X Background: Dementia is a major and growing health problem, and early diagnosis is key to its management. Objective: With the ultimate goal of providing a monitoring tool that could be used to support the screening for cognitive decline, this study aims to develop a supervised, digitized version of 2 neuropsychological tests: Trail Making Test and Bells Test. The system consists of a web app that implements a tablet-based version of the tests and consists of an innovative vocal assistant that acts as the virtual supervisor for the execution of the test. A replay functionality is added to allow inspection of the user’s performance after test completion. Methods: To deploy the system in a nonsupervised environment, extensive functional testing of the platform was conducted, together with a validation of the tablet-based tests. Such validation had the two-fold aim of evaluating system usability and acceptance and investigating the concurrent validity of computerized assessment compared with the corresponding paper-and-pencil counterparts. Results: The results obtained from 83 older adults showed high system acceptance, despite the patients’ low familiarity with technology. The system software was successfully validated. A concurrent validation of the system reported good ability of the digitized tests to retain the same predictive power of the corresponding paper-based tests. Conclusions: Altogether, the positive results pave the way for the deployment of the system to a nonsupervised environment, thus representing a potential efficacious and ecological solution to support clinicians in the identification of early signs of cognitive decline. 
%M 32955442
%R 10.2196/17963
%U http://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/9/e17963/
%U https://doi.org/10.2196/17963
%U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32955442