Clinical Manifestations.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Gerontology
• Cognitive Psychology

Background:

• Detecting cognitive decline in older adults, especially those with limited education or diverse sociocultural backgrounds, poses a significant challenge.
• Traditional cognitive assessment tools may provide inaccurate diagnoses due to a lack of consideration for factors like schooling and age.
• The Brain Health Assessment Tablet-Based Cognitive Assessment Tool (BHA-TabCAT) was developed to address these limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate and standardize the BHA-TabCAT for use among older adults in the Andean Peruvian population.
• To compare the diagnostic performance of the BHA-TabCAT against established cognitive screening tools.

Main Methods:

• 258 participants (aged 54-91) were assessed using the BHA-TabCAT, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Rowland Universal (RUDAS).
• Data was collected in both rural (Pampacolca) and urban (Arequipa) settings in Peru.
• Regression-based norming procedures were employed, incorporating sex, place of residence, age, and years of schooling as covariates.

Main Results:

• The BHA-TabCAT demonstrated superior accuracy in detecting cognitive decline compared to the MMSE and RUDAS.
• With significant sociodemographic predictors, the BHA-TabCAT achieved an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 77.4%, outperforming MMSE (66.6%) and RUDAS (71.9%).
• The tool's performance was enhanced when considering covariates such as education, age, residence, and gender.

Conclusions:

• The BHA-TabCAT is a more effective tool for detecting cognitive decline in Andean Peruvian older adults than the MMSE and RUDAS.
• Accounting for relevant covariates significantly improves the BHA-TabCAT's diagnostic accuracy.
• This validated tool offers improved opportunities for early identification of cognitive decline in diverse Peruvian populations.