Translation and concurrent validity, sensitivity and specificity of Chinese version of Short Orientation Memory Concentration Test in people with a first cerebral infarction

Jiang-Li Zhao; Pei-Ming Chen; Shamay S M Ng; Yu-Rong Mao; Dong-Feng Huang

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2023.977078

Translation and concurrent validity, sensitivity and specificity of Chinese version of Short Orientation Memory Concentration Test in people with a first cerebral infarction

Front Hum Neurosci. 2023 Jun 1:17:977078. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.977078. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jiang-Li Zhao¹, Pei-Ming Chen², Shamay S M Ng², Yu-Rong Mao^{1

3}, Dong-Feng Huang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
² Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
³ Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The Seventh Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to translate the English version of the Short Orientation-Memory-Concentration (SOMC) test into a Chinese version, denoted the C-SOMC test, and to investigate the concurrent validity, sensitivity, and specificity of the C-SOMC test against a longer and widely used screening instrument in people with a first cerebral infarction.

Methods: An expert group translated the SOMC test into Chinese using a forward-backward procedure. Eighty-six participants (67 men and 19 women, mean age = 59.31 ± 11.57 years) with a first cerebral infarction were enrolled in this study. The validity of the C-SOMC test was determined using the Chinese version of Mini Mental State Examination (C-MMSE) as the comparator. Concurrent validity was determined using Spearman's rank correlation coefficients. Univariate linear regression was used to analyze items' abilities to predict the total score on the C-SOMC test and the C-MMSE score. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to demonstrate the sensitivity and specificity of the C-SOMC test at various cut-off values distinguishing cognitive impairment from normal cognition.

Results: The total score for the C-SOMC test and the score for item 1 on this test exhibited moderate-to-good correlations with the C-MMSE score, with respective ρ-values of 0.636 and 0.565 (P < 0.001). The scores for each of items 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 yielded fair correlations with C-MMSE score, with ρ-value from 0.272 to 0.495 (P < 0.05). The total score on the C-SOMC test and the item score were good predictors (adjusted R² = 0.049 to 0.615) of the C-MMSE score, and six items were good predictors (adjusted R² = 0.134 to 0.795) of the total score. The AUC was 0.92 for the C-SOMC test. A cut-off of 17/18 on the C-SOMC test gave optimal performance: correct classification of 75% of participants, with 75% sensitivity and 87.9% specificity.

Conclusion: The C-SOMC test demonstrated good concurrent validity, sensitivity and specificity in a sample of people with a first cerebral infarction, demonstrating that it could be used to screen for cognitive impairment in stroke patients.

Keywords: Short Orientation Memory Concentration Test (SOMC); cognition; rehabilitation; sensitivity; specificity; stroke; validity.

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFC2004300 and 2020YFC2004304), the 5010 Planning Project of Sun Yat-sen University of China (No. 2014001), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82102649), and the Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. A2020426).