Expected performance of Quebec-French older adults on the Batterie Rapide de Dénomination (BARD)

Difficulties retrieving words during conversations, called anomia, are frequent in the late preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease, in mild cognitive impairment, and in major neurocognitive disorders. Picture-naming tests, used to assess anomia, are too lengthy and are unsuitable for medical or nursing practices. The main objective of this study was to confirm the usefulness of the Batterie Rapide de Dénomination (BARD - Battery of Rapid Denomination), an electronically-administered picture-naming test comprising 10 pictures for which perfect naming scores were obtained in French, English and Flemish participants. In this study, the BARD was applied on 207 healthy, French-speaking participants from Quebec, aged 50 years and more, wherein the results demonstrated the ease of naming the 10 pictures of the test. However, their performance was not always flawless. Seven out of the 207 participants of produced one error on one specific picture, which led us to excluding this item from the BARD. Thus, this study established the utility of the BARD for clinical settings of French-Quebec populations. This screening test is ideally suited for bedside assessment in acute care settings, stroke units and medical environments providing primary and secondary care. Its use has the potential for improving referrals to more specialized resources.