Remote versus face-to-face neuropsychological testing for dementia research: a comparative study in people with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and healthy older individuals

Objectives We explored whether adapting neuropsychological tests for online administration during the COVID-19 pandemic was feasible for dementia research.Design We used a longitudinal design for healthy controls, who completed face-to-face assessments 3–4 years before remote assessments. For patien...

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Main Authors: Jason D Warren, Jonathan D Rohrer, Caroline Greaves, Lucianne Dobson, Rebecca L Bond, Chris JD Hardy, Sebastian J Crutch, Jessica Jiang, Elia Benhamou, Mai-Carmen Requena-Komuro, Suzie Barker, Lucy Russell, Emilie V Brotherhood
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2022-11-01
Series:BMJ Open
Online Access:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/11/e064576.full
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author Jason D Warren
Jonathan D Rohrer
Caroline Greaves
Lucianne Dobson
Rebecca L Bond
Chris JD Hardy
Sebastian J Crutch
Jessica Jiang
Elia Benhamou
Mai-Carmen Requena-Komuro
Suzie Barker
Lucy Russell
Emilie V Brotherhood
author_facet Jason D Warren
Jonathan D Rohrer
Caroline Greaves
Lucianne Dobson
Rebecca L Bond
Chris JD Hardy
Sebastian J Crutch
Jessica Jiang
Elia Benhamou
Mai-Carmen Requena-Komuro
Suzie Barker
Lucy Russell
Emilie V Brotherhood
author_sort Jason D Warren
collection DOAJ
description Objectives We explored whether adapting neuropsychological tests for online administration during the COVID-19 pandemic was feasible for dementia research.Design We used a longitudinal design for healthy controls, who completed face-to-face assessments 3–4 years before remote assessments. For patients, we used a cross-sectional design, contrasting a prospective remote cohort with a retrospective face-to-face cohort matched for age/education/severity.Setting Remote assessments were conducted using video-conferencing/online testing platforms, with participants using a personal computer/tablet at home. Face-to-face assessments were conducted in testing rooms at our research centre.Participants The remote cohort comprised 25 patients (n=8 Alzheimer’s disease (AD); n=3 behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD); n=4 semantic dementia (SD); n=5 progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA); n=5 logopenic aphasia (LPA)). The face-to-face patient cohort comprised 64 patients (n=25 AD; n=12 bvFTD; n=9 SD; n=12 PNFA; n=6 LPA). Ten controls who previously participated in face-to-face research also took part remotely.Outcome measures The outcome measures comprised the strength of evidence under a Bayesian framework for differences in performances between testing environments on general neuropsychological and neurolinguistic measures.Results There was substantial evidence suggesting no difference across environments in both the healthy control and combined patient cohorts (including measures of working memory, single-word comprehension, arithmetic and naming; Bayes Factors (BF)01 >3), in the healthy control group alone (including measures of letter/category fluency, semantic knowledge and bisyllabic word repetition; all BF01 >3), and in the combined patient cohort alone (including measures of working memory, episodic memory, short-term verbal memory, visual perception, non-word reading, sentence comprehension and bisyllabic/trisyllabic word repetition; all BF01 >3). In the control cohort alone, there was substantial evidence in support of a difference across environments for tests of visual perception (BF01=0.0404) and monosyllabic word repetition (BF01=0.0487).Conclusions Our findings suggest that remote delivery of neuropsychological tests for dementia research is feasible.
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spelling doaj.art-ef7dd2b33cb64c79a824d652821af8ce2022-12-22T04:35:48ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552022-11-01121110.1136/bmjopen-2022-064576Remote versus face-to-face neuropsychological testing for dementia research: a comparative study in people with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and healthy older individualsJason D Warren0Jonathan D Rohrer1Caroline Greaves2Lucianne Dobson3Rebecca L Bond4Chris JD Hardy5Sebastian J Crutch6Jessica Jiang7Elia Benhamou8Mai-Carmen Requena-Komuro9Suzie Barker10Lucy Russell11Emilie V Brotherhood121 Dementia Research Centre, UCL, London, UKhonorary consultant neurologistDementia Research Centre, University College London, London, UK1Dementia Research Centre, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology1Dementia Research Centre, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College LondonQueen Square Institute of Neurology, London1 Dementia Research Centre, UCL, London, UK1University College London1University College London1University College LondonDementia Research Centre, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UKDementia Research Centre, University College London, London, UKDementia Research Centre, University College London, London, UKObjectives We explored whether adapting neuropsychological tests for online administration during the COVID-19 pandemic was feasible for dementia research.Design We used a longitudinal design for healthy controls, who completed face-to-face assessments 3–4 years before remote assessments. For patients, we used a cross-sectional design, contrasting a prospective remote cohort with a retrospective face-to-face cohort matched for age/education/severity.Setting Remote assessments were conducted using video-conferencing/online testing platforms, with participants using a personal computer/tablet at home. Face-to-face assessments were conducted in testing rooms at our research centre.Participants The remote cohort comprised 25 patients (n=8 Alzheimer’s disease (AD); n=3 behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD); n=4 semantic dementia (SD); n=5 progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA); n=5 logopenic aphasia (LPA)). The face-to-face patient cohort comprised 64 patients (n=25 AD; n=12 bvFTD; n=9 SD; n=12 PNFA; n=6 LPA). Ten controls who previously participated in face-to-face research also took part remotely.Outcome measures The outcome measures comprised the strength of evidence under a Bayesian framework for differences in performances between testing environments on general neuropsychological and neurolinguistic measures.Results There was substantial evidence suggesting no difference across environments in both the healthy control and combined patient cohorts (including measures of working memory, single-word comprehension, arithmetic and naming; Bayes Factors (BF)01 >3), in the healthy control group alone (including measures of letter/category fluency, semantic knowledge and bisyllabic word repetition; all BF01 >3), and in the combined patient cohort alone (including measures of working memory, episodic memory, short-term verbal memory, visual perception, non-word reading, sentence comprehension and bisyllabic/trisyllabic word repetition; all BF01 >3). In the control cohort alone, there was substantial evidence in support of a difference across environments for tests of visual perception (BF01=0.0404) and monosyllabic word repetition (BF01=0.0487).Conclusions Our findings suggest that remote delivery of neuropsychological tests for dementia research is feasible.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/11/e064576.full
spellingShingle Jason D Warren
Jonathan D Rohrer
Caroline Greaves
Lucianne Dobson
Rebecca L Bond
Chris JD Hardy
Sebastian J Crutch
Jessica Jiang
Elia Benhamou
Mai-Carmen Requena-Komuro
Suzie Barker
Lucy Russell
Emilie V Brotherhood
Remote versus face-to-face neuropsychological testing for dementia research: a comparative study in people with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and healthy older individuals
BMJ Open
title Remote versus face-to-face neuropsychological testing for dementia research: a comparative study in people with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and healthy older individuals
title_full Remote versus face-to-face neuropsychological testing for dementia research: a comparative study in people with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and healthy older individuals
title_fullStr Remote versus face-to-face neuropsychological testing for dementia research: a comparative study in people with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and healthy older individuals
title_full_unstemmed Remote versus face-to-face neuropsychological testing for dementia research: a comparative study in people with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and healthy older individuals
title_short Remote versus face-to-face neuropsychological testing for dementia research: a comparative study in people with Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and healthy older individuals
title_sort remote versus face to face neuropsychological testing for dementia research a comparative study in people with alzheimer s disease frontotemporal dementia and healthy older individuals
url https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/11/e064576.full
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