The mobile everyday cognition scale (mECog): development and pilot testing

Abstract

Objective: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is an important part of the aging process and may be a sign of neurodegenerative disease. Current measures of SCD are subject to the limits of retrospective recall of symptoms over a long span of time, which might be addressed by using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods. However, there are no currently available measures of SCD validated for use in EMA. Thus, our goal was to develop and pilot test the mobile Everyday Cognition Scale (mECog). Method: 31 community-dwelling older adults completed in lab measures of cognition and mental health symptoms, followed by daily mECog ratings on a smart phone for 28 days. Results: Most participants completed at least 75% of mECog assessments (n = 27, 87%), and the average number of assessments completed was 22. Further, respondents rated the mobile assessment platform and measures as easy to use and non-interfering with daily life. Test-retest reliability of mECog scores was very strong (R_KRN = .99), and within-person reliability was moderate (R_CN = .41). mECog scores demonstrated strong positive associations with scores from the original ECog (ρ = .62–69, p < .001) and short form ECog (ρ = .63-.69, p < .001) and non-significant associations with demographics (ρ = –0.25–.04, p = .21-.94) and mental health symptoms (ρ = –0.06-.34, p = .08–.99). mECog scores also exhibited small-to-moderate negative correlations with objective cognitive test scores, though these relationships did not reach statistical significance (ρ = –0.32 to −0.22, p = .10–.27). Conclusions: Results suggest that mobile assessment of SCD via the mECog is feasible and acceptable. Further, mECog scores demonstrated good psychometric properties, including evidence of strong reliability, convergent validity, and divergent validity.

Keywords:

• Subjective cognitive decline
• ecological momentary assessment
• aging
• Alzheimer’s

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The participants of this study did not give written consent for their data to be shared publicly, so due to the sensitive nature of the research supporting data is not available.

Notes

1 Global performance on cognitive testing was not significantly associated with number of assessments completed (r= -.02, p = .91).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an internal award from the University of Missouri. Dr. Kiselica is also supported by a career development award from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U54AG063546, which funds NIA Imbedded Pragmatic Alzheimer’s Disease and AD-Related Dementias Clinical Trials Collaboratory (NIA IMPACT Collaboratory). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.