Validation of one-year reliable change in the RBANS for community-dwelling older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment

Abstract

Objective: The current study sought to externally validate previously published standardized regression-based (SRB) equations for the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) Indexes administered twice over a one-year period. Method: Hammers and colleagues’ SRB prediction equations were applied to two independent samples of community-dwelling older adults with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), including those recruited from the community (n = 64) and those recruited from a memory disorders clinic (n = 58). Results: While Observed Baseline and Observed Follow-up performances were generally comparable for both MCI samples over one year, both samples possessed significantly lower Observed One-Year Follow-up scores than were predicted based on Hammers and colleagues' development sample across many RBANS Indexes. Relatedly, both amnestic MCI samples possessed a greater percentage of participants either “declining” or failing to exhibit a long-term practice effect over one year relative to expectation across most Indexes. Further, the clinic-recruited amnestic MCI sample displayed worse baseline performances, smaller long-term practice effects, and greater proportions of individual participants exhibiting a decline across one year relative to the community amnestic MCI sample. Conclusions: These findings validate Hammers and colleagues' SRB prediction equations by (1) indicating their ability to identify clinically meaningful change across RBANS Indexes in independent samples, and (2) discriminating rates of cognitive change among cognitively nuanced samples.

Keywords:

• Cognition
• reliable change
• assessment
• mild cognitive impairment
• memory

Acknowledgements

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Aging or the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

No authors have any conflicts to declare.

Additional information

Funding

The project described was supported by research grants from the National Institutes on Aging: K23 AG028417, 5R01 AG045163, and 5R01 AG055428.