TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lunardini, Francesca
AU  - Luperto, Matteo
AU  - Romeo, Marta
AU  - Basilico, Nicola
AU  - Daniele, Katia
AU  - Azzolino, Domenico
AU  - Damanti, Sarah
AU  - Abbate, Carlo
AU  - Mari, Daniela
AU  - Cesari, Matteo
AU  - Borghese, Nunzio Alberto
AU  - Ferrante, Simona
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/9/21
TI  - Supervised Digital Neuropsychological Tests for Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: Usability and Clinical Validity Study
JO  - JMIR Mhealth Uhealth
SP  - e17963
VL  - 8
IS  - 9
KW  - aging
KW  - Bells Test
KW  - computerized testing
KW  - dementia
KW  - early diagnosis
KW  - eHealth
KW  - mild cognitive impairment
KW  - neuropsychological assessment
KW  - Trail Making Test
AB  - 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. 
SN  - 2291-5222
UR  - http://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/9/e17963/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/17963
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32955442
DO  - 10.2196/17963
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/17963
ER  -