Video teleconference administration of the addenbrooke's cognitive examination-III for the assessment of neuropsychological status: An experience in Indian subjects with cognitive dysfunction

• Published in: Annals of the Indian Academy of Neurology 2023-07, Vol.26 (4), p.447-452
• Main Authors: Saini, Garima, Malhotra, Simran, Rajan, Roopa, Vishnu, Venugopalan, Mani, Kalaivani, Bhatia, Rohit, Bhushan, Mamta, Padma Srivastava, M, Gupta, Anu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: addenbrooke's cognitive examination-iii; Cognition; Cognition disorders; Cognitive ability; cognitive dysfunction; COVID-19; Dementia disorders; Diagnosis; Market surveys; Methods; neuropsychological assessment; Neuropsychological tests; Neuropsychology; Original; Telemedicine; video teleconference
• ISSN: 0972-2327; 1998-3549
• DOI: 10.4103/aian.aian_97_23

Objective: To determine the feasibility, reliability, and acceptability of video teleconference (VTC)-based neuropsychological assessment using Addenbrooke's cognitive examination-III (ACE-III). Methods: This study was performed from January 2022 to April 2022, during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. We administered ACE-III using video-teleconferencing and compared the scores to face-to-face (FTF) testing for the eligible participants. We also conducted a participant's satisfaction survey of VTC-administered ACE-III compared to FTF-administered ACE-III, using a 7-point Likert scale. Results: We screened 37 participants and 24 (64.9%) successfully underwent ACE-III testing through VTC. We included 20 patients (mean age: 62.7 ± 10 years, mean education: 12.0 ± 4.6 years, 85% men) for final analysis, (who completed both VTC and FTF-administered ACE-III). Nine patients had major neurocognitive disorder (dementia), eight had mild neurocognitive disorder (MCI), and three had subjective cognitive decline (SCD). The two tests were administered at a median gap of 36 (18,74.5) days. The Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of ACE-3 total scores (0.97) and the subdomain scores was high (>0.8). There was "very low" to "no" bias on the Bland-Altman plots, across all domains. The mean overall satisfaction score was 4.1, indicating that VTC is "as good as" FTF. Conclusions: Results support the feasibility and acceptability of remote administration of ACE-III via VTC. There is a good agreement between the ACE-III scores across VTC and in-person conditions.