Assessment of changes in psychomotor performance of elderly subjects.

Abstract

1. The repeatability of a computerised psychomotor test battery on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis was assessed by determining its test-retest reliability and variations in group-means and intraindividual psychomotor performance scores of elderly people. 2. Psychomotor performance was assessed in 50 well-screened elderly subjects (21 males, 29 females; mean age 70.4 +/- 5.0 (s.d.) years) on 5 consecutive days and over 4 weeks in standardised test conditions. 3. The psychomotor test battery consisted of computerised versions of symbol digit substitution test (SDST), continuous attention test (CAT), choice reaction time (CRT), critical flicker fusion test (CFFT), cognitive flexibility test (FLEX), paired word association test (PWAT) and inspection time (INSP). 4. Main outcome measures were test-retest reliability, group variability and intraindividual variability. 5. There was no significant variation in group-means for all components of the test battery over 5 days or 4 weeks on two way analysis of variance. The intraindividual coefficient of variation was low for SDST, CRT, CFFT, FLEX, PWAT and INSP during the period of assessment. Test retest reliability was greater than 0.8 for SDST, CAT, CRT and PWAT. 6. Tests in the Automated Psychomotor Test Battery are reliable and repeatable measures of psychomotor performance on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis.