Australian Rules Football and Rugby League
Mark R. Lovell, Ruben J. Echemendia, Jeffrey T. Barth, Michael W. Collins in Traumatic Brain Injury in Sports, 2020
Preliminary preseason data on 71 professional rugby league players retested within 1-2 weeks showed that 80% and 73% of players demonstrated improved performance on retesting for the Digit Symbol and Speed of Comprehension tests respectively. These results have several implications. First, whether or not preseason data are available to compare with performance following trauma, retest norms will be required in order to control for the effects of practice. Second, practice effects may depend on type of measure employed. Tests involving some component of timed performance appear to be differentially affected by repeated administration. Third, improved performance was noted even when alternate forms were utilised. Thus alternate forms are a necessary, but not sufficient method of controlling practice effects. Fourth, the retest interval appears to be of great importance. Retest intervals of around one year tend not to result in improved performance (Lovell & Collins, 1998; Temkin, Heaton, Grant, & Dikmen, 1999). Retest interval and magnitude of practice effect appear to be inversely related. As many psychometric texts remind us, the reliability and validity of a test are features of its use, rather than characteristics of the test itself. Establishing retest normative data that mirror the testing schedule desired in pre/post concussion assessment would be of great assistance to the clinician in terms of ascertaining the presence of deficit and rate of recovery.
Dementia Assessment in American Indians
Gwen Yeo, Linda A. Gerdner, Dolores Gallagher-Thompson in Ethnicity and the Dementias, 2018
Cognitive measures may be biased in their application in a number of ways. First, a test’s psychometric properties may differ across cultural groups. Second, conceptual problems may occur because measures were developed with a group other than the group(s) being tested. As a result, instruments may reflect irrelevant interests, concerns, titles, or ways of thinking (Manly et al., 1998; Stewart & Napoles-Springer, 2003). Other research has suggested differences in functional brain organization (Scott, Hynd, Hunt, & Weed, 1979), decision-making strategies, and learning styles among some bilinguals and AIs (King & Fletcher-Janzen, 2000). Such differences in cognition may have important – but as yet poorly understood – implications for performance on standard neuropsychological tests. Additionally, culturally specific worldviews, local cultural patterns influencing cognitive styles, and linguistic factors (e.g., English as a second language and/or lower English fluency) may interfere with some AI elders’ ability to perform well on traditional cognitive tests (Jervis & Manson, 2002; Lanting et al., 2011).
Biostatistics: Issues in study design, analysis, and reporting
Stephen W. Gutkin in Writing High-Quality Medical Publications, 2018
In theory and practice, PCA is a form of exploratory data analysis (EDA). Its progenitor was the very same Karl Pearson whom we have mentioned previously.126 Perhaps the best way to summarize PCA is that it constitutes a complex mathematical method (an eigenvalue-based orthogonal transformation) of reducing a set of complex data to a few “principal components”; the number of original variables is always larger than that of principal components. PCA reduces an array of variables that may be correlated into a new set that are linearly uncorrelated: these are the principal components. Related analyses include cluster analysis and factor analysis. Cluster analysis seeks to group individuals into certain natural systems (e.g., numerical taxonomy). Factor analysis may be applied to reduce the complexity of certain psychometric tests to a set of more basic constructs (e.g., general intelligence).
EncephalApp stroop test versus electronic number connection test-A for screening minimal hepatic encephalopathy in patients with liver cirrhosis: a comparative study
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 2022
Ming Luo, Fang-Rui Hu, Peng-Da Wang, Li Yao, Sheng-Juan Hu, Fei-Hu Bai
Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) is a common neuropsychiatric complication of liver cirrhosis and/or portosystemic shunting, with a spectrum of trivial cognitive deficits in abilities such as attention span, psychomotor speed and working memory [1]. The prevalence of MHE has been reported in up to 50–70% of cirrhotic patients, and MHE impairs daily function and affects health-related quality of life [2]. There is a lack of universal standardized methods for MHE diagnosis in clinical practice. The latest guideline by the AASLD recommends the psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score (PHES) for MHE diagnosis [1]. However, the testing procedure of PHES is time consuming and requires physicians for administration and interpretation, thus PHES cannot be rapidly and conveniently performed in clinic. Recently, psychometric tests have been computerised for simplification and convenience. Both EncephalApp Stroop test (EncephalApp) and electronic number connection test-A (eNCT-A) are novel computerised psychometric tests for MHE screening [3,4]. We aimed to compare the efficiency, convenience, accessibility, and acceptability of EncephalApp with that of eNCT-A for MHE screening in patients with hepatitis B-induced liver cirrhosis.
Factor analysis of the Personality Assessment Inventory in service members with traumatic brain injury
Published in Brain Injury, 2022
Brick Johnstone, Catherine Butt, Hind Baydoun, Jillian Schneider, Brittany Camp
The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI 1,2); is purported to be a measure of psychopathology and personality that was initially developed for psychiatric populations, although it is increasingly used with military service members (SMs) with traumatic brain injury (TBI 3–7);. To establish both the psychometric properties and clinical utility of individual measures, factor analysis is necessary to identify the general constructs that are purported to be assessed by the measure of interest. In general, the factor structure of the PAI has been demonstrated with both psychiatric (1) and non-psychiatric samples (8), with studies suggesting that the PAI assesses three general constructs that have relevance to psychiatric populations that have been described as severe psychopathology/acute psychiatric syndrome, substance abuse and acting out, and egocentricity and exploitativeness.
Assessing lower limb position sense in stroke using the gradient discrimination test (GradDT™) and step-height discrimination test (StepDT™): a reliability and validity study
Published in Disability and Rehabilitation, 2020
Terry Gorst, Jenny Freeman, Kielan Yarrow, Jonathan Marsden
Here, two novel tests of lower limb position sense, the GradDT™ and StepDT™ were developed in response to a lack of functionally oriented, clinically feasible and sensitive measures of lower limb position sense. Their focus was derived through qualitative research [12] and their development supported by patient, carer, public and stakeholder involvement. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of these tests. The sensory-perceptual ability of the foot and ankle to discriminate surface gradient or slope was assessed during full weight-bearing using the GradDT™. The ability of the lower limb to discriminate the height of a step, without vision, was assessed with the StepDT™. The study results support the reliability and validity of these tests, and demonstrates their superior validity and sensitivity/specificity when compared to the proprioceptive component of the EmNSA.
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