Identifying subtle functional change in individuals with mild cognitive impairment: development and validation of the Healthy Brain Ageing - Functional Assessment Questionnaire

Pinghsiu Lin; Haley M LaMonica; Sharon L Naismith; Loren Mowszowski

doi:10.1080/13825585.2022.2057910

Identifying subtle functional change in individuals with mild cognitive impairment: development and validation of the Healthy Brain Ageing - Functional Assessment Questionnaire

Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2023 Jul;30(4):536-554. doi: 10.1080/13825585.2022.2057910. Epub 2022 Mar 28.

Authors

Pinghsiu Lin^{1

2}, Haley M LaMonica^{1

3}, Sharon L Naismith^{1

2

4}, Loren Mowszowski^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Healthy Brain Ageing Program, Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Nsw, Australia.
² School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Nsw, Australia.
³ Translational Research Collective, The University of Sydney, Nsw, Australia.
⁴ Charles Perkins Centre, the University of Sydney, Sydney, Nsw, Australia.

PMID: 35345965
DOI: 10.1080/13825585.2022.2057910

Abstract

Accumulating research suggests that individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) experience subtle functional changes, but that available functional assessment tools are insensitive to this. To address this gap, we describe the development and validation of the self-report, "Healthy Brain Ageing Functional Assessment Questionnaire" (HBA-FAQ). We examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the HBA-FAQ in 503 participants with normal cognition, subjective cognitive decline (SCD), MCI or dementia. Our results found the HBA-FAQ to have good reliability, validity and stronger discriminative ability between healthy control participants and those with SCD (0.734, p = .001), MCI (0.666, p = .012) and dementia (0.798, p < .001) compared to a widely-used instrumental activities of daily living screener. In conclusion, the HBA-FAQ is a valid, reliable self-report tool, providing an efficient and sensitive approach to identifying subtle changes in daily functioning in older people at risk of dementia.

Keywords: Measurement; activities of daily living; analysis – factor analysis; mild cognitive impairment; psychometrics.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Brain* / physiopathology
Case-Control Studies
Cognitive Dysfunction* / diagnosis
Cognitive Dysfunction* / physiopathology
Cognitive Dysfunction* / psychology
Dementia / diagnosis
Dementia / physiopathology
Dementia / psychology
Female
Health Surveys* / methods
Health Surveys* / standards
Healthy Aging* / physiology
Healthy Aging* / psychology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Psychometrics
Reproducibility of Results
Self Report