Feasibility and validation of a web-based platform for the self-administered patient collection of demographics, health status, anxiety, depression, and cognition in community dwelling elderly.

Matthew Calamia,Jeffrey N Keller,Ray Allen,Daniel S Weitzner,John P K Bernstein,Alyssa N De Vito,Simone Reppermund

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0244962

Matthew Calamia, Jeffrey N Keller + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244962

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Abstract

The coronavirus disease pandemic has brought a new urgency for the development and deployment of web-based applications which complement, and offer alternatives to, traditional one-on-one consultations and pencil-and-paper (PaP) based assessments that currently dominate clinical research. We have recently developed a web-based application that can be used for the self-administered collection of patient demographics, self-rated health, depression and anxiety, and cognition as part of a single platform. In this study we report the findings from a study with 155 cognitively healthy older adults who received established PaP versions, as well as our novel computerized measures of self-rated health, depression and anxiety, and cognition. Moderate to high correlations were observed between PaP and web- based measures of self-rated health (r = 0.77), depression and anxiety (r = 0.72), and preclinical Alzheimer’s disease cognitive composite (PACC) (r = .61). Test-retest correlations were variable with high correlations for a measure of processing speed and a measure of delayed episodic memory. Taken together, these data support the feasibility and validity of utilization of this novel web-based platform as a new alternative for collecting patient demographics and the assessment of self-rated health, depression and anxiety, and cognition in the elderly.

Highlights

The coronavirus disease 19 (Covid-19) pandemic and the resulting direct and indirect impacts of social distancing dramatically interrupted or stopped clinical research around the world
The current study focused on the validity and feasibility of using the computerized preclinical Alzheimer’s disease cognitive composite (PACC), a novel web-based application which employs a self-administered approach for elderly participants to provide demographic data as well as undergo assessments of self-rated health, depression, anxiety, and cognition
The composite scores derived from the Computerized Preclinical Alzheimer’s Cognitive Composite (cPACC) and the Alzheimer’s disease cooperative study (ADCS)-PACC were found to be moderately related (r = .61) (Fig 1)

Summary

Introduction

The coronavirus disease 19 (Covid-19) pandemic and the resulting direct and indirect impacts of social distancing dramatically interrupted or stopped clinical research around the world. These and other realities in the wake of Covid-19 have created a new urgency for the generation of web-based research platforms which provide alternatives to face-to-face and penciland-paper (PaP) based assessments, and reduce the dependence on the manual transfer of PaP. Web-based platform for self-administered assessments in the elderly keller-lamar.org/) awarded to MC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

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