The RAPID Neuropsychological Test Battery for Subjects Aged 50-89: From Norms to Cognitive Profile

It is well established that healthy adults obtain low performances when simultaneously interpreting the results of multiple tests. The aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of French-speaking healthy older adults with low scores for the RAPID (Réseau d'Aide au diagnostic et à la PrIse en charge des Détériorations cognitives et de maladies neurologiques chroniques en Franche-Comté et au niveau national) battery test and consider different combinations of test scores within a specific domain and across different domains.

The prevalence of low scores (i.e., ≤5th percentile) on the 14 RAPID primary measures was calculated from the RAPID normative sample (n = 476), based on 4 ages (50-89 years) and 3 levels of education.

A high percentage (40.1%) of the normative sample obtained at least one or more low scores (i.e., false positives). In contrast, the risk of having low scores was much less important (<2%) when considering the combinations of 2 test-scores.

Low scores are very common in healthy older subjects and are thus not necessarily pathological or indicative of truly impaired functioning. The information derived from a cognitive profile may provide a greater clinical relevance in an individual, since very few of the healthy older adults obtained low scores on combinations of 2 test-scores.