Ecological Assessment Battery for Numbers (EABN) for brain-damaged patients: standardization and validity study

Area of Science:

• Neuropsychology
• Cognitive Rehabilitation
• Clinical Assessment

Background:

• Number-processing deficits can significantly impair daily functioning after brain injury.
• Existing assessment tools may not adequately capture real-world number-processing challenges.
• The Ecological Assessment Battery for Numbers (EABN) was developed as an ecological tool for this purpose.

Purpose of the Study:

• To standardize and validate the Ecological Assessment Battery for Numbers (EABN) for assessing number-processing disorders in brain-injured patients.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the EABN.

Main Methods:

• Standardization involved 126 healthy controls, stratified by age, sex, and sociocultural level.
• The EABN was administered to 17 brain-injured patients.
• Construct validity was assessed by comparing EABN scores with a French analytical calculation test (ECAN) in a subgroup of 10 patients.
• Discrimination indexes were calculated to evaluate subtest sensitivity.

Main Results:

• Sociocultural level significantly impacted standardization scores.
• Nine out of 17 patients exhibited pathological EABN scores, indicating difficulties with time telling, appointments, and numerical data.
• High concordance was found between the EABN and ECAN (Kendall's w=0.97).
• The EABN demonstrated good discriminatory power for tasks like movie scheduling, cheque writing, and recipe following (scores >0.4).

Conclusions:

• The EABN is a novel, standardized tool for assessing number-processing disorders in adults.
• The EABN possesses good psychometric properties for use with brain-injured populations.
• This tool effectively identifies practical difficulties related to number processing in daily life.