Battery for the Assessment of Cognitive Reserve (BARC): development and clinical validation for the Portuguese population

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe Cognitive Reserve (CR) is widely accepted as the active ability to cope with brain damage. The lack of a quantitative method for the assessment of CR including all the proxies commonly used for this purpose, highlight the need for a development of an assessment battery. The present study aims to present the final scores of the Battery for the Assessment of Cognitive Reserve (BARC).MethodThe BARC includes: (i) the Questionnaire of Literacy (QL), (ii) the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Cognitive Demand Level of Professional Activities (QANECAP), (iii) the Cognitive Reserve Questionnaire (CRQ), (iv) the Irregular Word Reading Test (TeLPI), and (v) the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale ‐ Vocabulary test(WAIS‐III). This new approach combined new questionnaires specifically developed by our team with other tests already validated for the Portuguese population, which also targeted the CR proxies. The BARC was administrated to 260 elderly participants (healthy controls: 200; dementia spectrum: 60). We also applied to respective available close informants.ResultThe last preliminary psychometric results of the new questionnaires evidenced the reliable and valid use in the Portuguese population. The validation of the QL and QANECAP allow the pursuit of analysis to establish the final score of the BARC, considering the individual weighting of each test/questionnaire.ConclusionWe developed a new battery to assess quantitatively the CR, which combined the several CR proxies in one single score. The BARC can be used in both clinical and research contexts.