Cog-First: standardization of a tablet-based self-administered cognitive screening.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Clinical Assessment

Background:

• Acquired brain injury can cause subtle cognitive deficits impacting long-term prognosis.
• Cog-First is a tablet-based tool for self-administered cognitive screening (executive function, memory, attention) in ~20 minutes.
• Early detection of cognitive disorders is crucial for patient outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish reliable normative data for the Cog-First cognitive screening tool.
• To enable meaningful comparisons between patients and a healthy reference population.
• To support the clinical use of Cog-First for early detection of cognitive impairments.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 406 healthy French-speaking volunteers.
• Participants completed the Cog-First assessment (7 subtests) under standardized conditions.
• Generalized linear models (GLMs) were used to evaluate effects of gender, age, education, and version, informing score correction and percentile derivation.

Main Results:

• Significant influences of gender, age, education, and test version were found on sub-scores.
• Standardization involved calculating percentiles on corrected scores in the healthy volunteer population.
• Test-retest analyses revealed a learning effect on 4 out of 7 subtests.

Conclusions:

• Standardization yielded score formulas adjusted for demographic factors and version, integrated into software for automated scoring.
• Reliable norms for Cog-First were established, enhancing score interpretation and clinical utility.
• This facilitates early detection of cognitive impairments, potentially improving patient outcomes post-brain injury.