Abstract
BackgroundThe validation of international cognitive batteries in different multiple sclerosis (MS) populations is essential. Our objective was to obtain normative data for the Portuguese population of the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) and assess its reliability.MethodsThe BICAMS was applied to 105 MS patients and 60 age, gender and education matched healthy controls (HC). In order to test its reliability, BICAMS was re-administered in a subset of 25 patients after a 7-month interval.ResultsMost participants were women, with a mean age of 37, 21 years and a mean of 14,08 years of education. The vast majority of the MS patients (92.4%) had the relapsing remitting type, 58.1% were professionally active, mean disease duration was 6.52 years, median EDSS score was 1.5 (range: 0–6.0) and the median MSSS score was 2.01 (IQR range: 3.83). The MS group presented significantly higher scores of anxiety and depression than HC and 47,4% had fatigue. The MS group performed significantly worse than the control group across the three neuropsychological tests, yielding the following values: SDMT: t(165) = 3.77, p = .000; CVLT-II: t(165) = 2.98, p = .003; and BVMT-R: t(165) = 2.94, p = .004. The mean raw scores for Portuguese normative data were as follows: SDMT: 58.68 ± 10.02; CVLT-II: 60.47 ± 10.12; and BVMT-R: 24.68 ± 5.52. Finally, test–retest reliability coefficients for each test were as follows: SDMT: r = .90; CVLT-II: r = .71; and BVMT-R: r = .84.ConclusionsThe Portuguese version of BICAMS here in described is a reliable monitoring instrument for identifying MS patients with cognitive impairment.
Highlights
The validation of international cognitive batteries in different multiple sclerosis (MS) populations is essential
Demographics and MS characteristics The groups were similar with regard to age (MS group: M = 38.26 years±11.03; healthy controls (HC): M = 36.17 years ±12.01, p = .63), gender (MS group: %Female = 66.7; HC: %Female = 58.3, p = .28) or number of educational years (MS group: M = 13.55 ± 3.71; HC: M = 14.62 ± 3.47, p = .42)
The results showed that MS group performed significantly worse than the HC group on all measures
Summary
The validation of international cognitive batteries in different multiple sclerosis (MS) populations is essential. Our objective was to obtain normative data for the Portuguese population of the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) and assess its reliability. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that can impair any body function, including cognition [1]. The characteristic pattern of cognitive impairment in MS has been described early on to include memory, information processing efficiency, executive functioning, attention and processing speed [1]. The cognitive domains most likely to be affected in MS are information processing speed and memory, whilst visual processing and executive function are less likely to be impaired and language is largely intact [1, 9,10,11,12].
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