The Executive Checklist (EC-10) - a new rating instrument for clinicians assessing dysexecutive behavior

Assessment of executive functions (EF) is often criticized for its lack of ecological validity. As a consequence, several self- and partner rating scales for EF have been developed, while rating scales designed for clinicians are lacking. We therefore developed the Executive Checklist (EC-10), a new rating scale for clinicians assessing dysexecutive behavior during neuropsychological assessment and examined its psychometric properties. Consecutive referrals from a memory clinic with subjective cognitive impairment (SCI; n = 27), mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 29), dementia (DEM; n = 16), as well as 11 healthy controls were assessed with the EC-10 while performing common neuropsychological tests. Results showed that the EC-10 had excellent inter-rater reliability, good internal consistency and modest relations to cognitive laboratory measures. The EC-10 increased the classification rate above and beyond the influence of neuropsychological tests when comparing patients with SCI and MCI or between cognitively impaired and non-impaired patients. Conclusively, the present study demonstrates that clinical observations can be quantified using the EC-10 and that this rating provides valuable information. As executive deficits are common in many neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, validating the EC-10 in broader patient groups should be an important avenue for future research.