Validation of the European Cross‐Cultural Neuropsychological Test Battery (CNTB) for the assessment of mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease in Spain

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundThe Cross‐Cultural Neuropsychological Test Battery (CNTB) is a novel comprehensive neuropsychological battery developed from a multicultural approach. We aimed to validate the CNTB in patients from the majority population with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild dementia stages, and Parkinson’s disease with MCI (PD‐MCI).MethodsThirty patients with AD‐MCI, 30 with AD‐dementia (AD‐D), and 30 with PD‐MCI were enrolled. Each clinical group had a specific healthy control group (HC) with no differences in sex, age, or years of education. We performed intergroup comparisons, ROC analysis, and calculated the corresponding cut‐off points based on Youden’s index.ResultsAD‐MCI showed lower scores than HC in those subtests associated with episodic memory and verbal fluency, while AD‐D also scored lower in executive function and visuospatial tests with large effect sizes. Participants with PD‐MCI showed lower performance in memory and executive function, particularly on error scores, with large effect sizes, compared with HC. While AD‐MCI showed lower memory scores, PD‐MCI had a lower performance in executive functions, comparing both groups. We found evidence of convergent validity with standardized neuropsychological tests measuring the same cognitive domains. Cut‐off scores were similar to previous studies conducted in other cultures.ConclusionsThe CNTB showed appropriate diagnostic properties and convergent validity in AD and PD, including the early stages of the disease. This supports the utility of the CNTB for the early detection of cognitive impairment in AD and PD.