Comparing the Standard and Electronic Versions of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale - Cognitive Subscale: A Validation Study

J Prev Alzheimers Dis. 2019;6(4):237-241. doi: 10.14283/jpad.2019.27.

Abstract

The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS-Cog) has become the de facto gold-standard for assessing the efficacy of putative anti-dementia treatments. There has been an increasing interest in providing greater standardization, automation, and administration consistency to the scale. Recently, electronic versions of the ADAS-Cog (eADAS-Cog) have been utilized in clinical trials and demonstrated significant reductions in frequency of rater error as compared to paper. In order to establish validity of the electronic version (eADAS-Cog), 20 subjects who had received a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's disease (AD) at a private US Memory Clinic completed a single-center, randomized, counterbalanced, prospective trial comparing a version of the eADAS-Cog to the standard paper scale. Interclass Correlation Coefficient on total scores and Kappa analysis on domain scores yielded high agreement (0.88 - 0.99). Effects of order and mode of administration on ADAS-Cog total scores did not demonstrate a significant main effect. Overall, this study establishes adequate concurrent validity between the ADAS-Cog and eADAS-Cog among an adult population with diagnosed AD.

Keywords: ADAS-cog; Alzheimer’s disease; cognition; eCOA; neuropsychology.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Validation Study

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis
  • Alzheimer Disease / physiopathology
  • Alzheimer Disease / psychology*
  • Computers, Handheld
  • Disease Progression*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mental Status and Dementia Tests*
  • Prospective Studies
  • Psychometrics
  • Random Allocation
  • Reproducibility of Results