TAM battery: Development and pilot testing of a Tamil computer-assisted cognitive test battery for older adults

Abstract

Objective: To develop and pilot test a computer-assisted test battery with standardized administration and scoring for assessing cognition in Tamil-speaking older adults. Methods: There were two phases: Phase 1 included identifying tests and developing new tests, the software application, and the test manual. Phase 2 included pilot testing the battery in the target population. TAM Battery: The TAM Battery has sixteen tests, of which nine are newly developed. The tests can be administered using the TAM Battery v1 app. It takes 2 hours and 30 minutes to administer. Phase 2: The TAM Battery was administered to one hundred cognitively normal participants, a test–retest sub-group of thirty-three people at T2 (6 months after the first administration), and twenty-four participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Results: The TAM Battery shows initial evidence of satisfactory clinical and concurrent validity. The tests, except the Figural Memory Test, show initial evidence of test–retest reliability. Conclusions: The TAM Battery, the software application to be used for computer assisted administration of the battery and the Test Administration and Scoring Manual were developed. The pilot testing shows that the test battery has the potential to be a comprehensive cognitive assessment tool for Tamil speaking older adults. Its potential application in assessing a wider age group and use in tele-evaluation can be explored. Normative data needs to be developed for the target population and its psychometric properties need to be established in future studies.

Keywords:

• Neuropsychology test development
• Indian cognitive assessment
• Tamil cognitive assessment
• Indian computerized cognitive assessment
• Tamil neuropsychological evaluation

Acknowledgements

Dr. V. Shankar, Former Head of the Department, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, who was the supervisor of the PhD research undertaken that included the study described.

University Grants Commission, Government of India, whose UGC-NET JRF grant to Dr. Porrselvi A. P. helped fund part of the software application development for this research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.