VALIDATION OF THE SPANISH VERSION OF THE COGNISTAT SCREENING BATTERY FOR DETECTING AMNESTIC MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT

Aims: Screening batteries, particularly computerized ones, may be clinically useful for assessing the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, a risk factor for dementia. Our aim is to validate the computerized Spanish version of the Cognistat screening battery for the detection of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) in an older Spanish-speaking population.
Methods: Twenty-five patients with aMCI and fifteen healthy controls, matched for age and educational level, were recruited at the Bellvitge University Hospital. Participants were assessed with Cognistat after completing a standardized neuropsychological battery, which served as the reference criterion for group assignment. Scores obtained on the Cognistat subscales were compared, and effect sizes calculated. In addition, sensitivity, specificity, as well as the AUC for each subscale were determined.
Results: The groups differed in performance on several Cognistat subscales, with very large effect sizes observed in Orientation, Attention, Construction and Memory (d > 1.6) and a moderate effect size in Repetition (d > 0.5). Figure 1 illustrate differences between groups. The AUCs for Memory, Orientation, Repetition, Construction and Attention were 0.82, 0.74, 0.72, 0.69 and 0.67, respectively; the remaining subscales showed AUC values < 0.65. The AUC of the Cognistat total score was 0.89, with a p-value < 0.0001 (95% CI: 0.79–0.99).
Conclusions: Cognistat is a useful screening tool for detecting cases of aMCI in older Spanish-speaking populations. Further analyses with a larger sample size are needed to confirm these preliminary results.

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