An Investigation of Impaired Scores on the Frontal Assessment Battery in a VA Population

Abstract

In a population of inpatients, individuals were observed to continually score in the impaired range on the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) without exhibiting other signs of frontal-lobe damage. Investigations were undertaken to determine if the subtest structure, demographic factors, or general cognitive functioning may be responsible for patients’ poor performance on the FAB overall. Participants were inpatients at the Ann Arbor Veterans Hospital who were administered a standard neuropsychological screening battery. This battery included the FAB, among other tests, as part of regular clinical care. Included in these study analyses were 292 patients with a mean age of 67.27 years (SD = 12.41). Descriptive analyses revealed that 63.7% of patients scored in the impaired range on the FAB based on the criteria set forth by Dubois, Slachevsky, and Litvan (2000). Analyses of individual subtest performance failed to find any single test that would characterize participants’ poor performance overall. Nonetheless, the total FAB score was related to age, general cognitive functioning, and premorbid estimates of intellectual functioning. The internal reliability also was found to be lower than that reported previously. While the FAB may measure frontal-lobe functions, it appears to be influenced by a multitude of other demographic and neuropsychological factors.

Key words:

• dementia
• factor analysis
• frontal lobe
• inpatients
• psychometrics
• reliability and validity

Notes

FAB = Frontal Assessment Battery; MMSE = Mini Mental State Exam; PPVT-III = Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Third Edition.