Open AccessDetection of Mild Cognitive Impairment in an At-Risk Group of Older Adults: Can a Novel Self-Administered Serious Game-Based Screening Test Improve Diagnostic Accuracy?
Author(s) -
Stelios Zygouris,
Paraskevi Iliadou,
Eftychia Lazarou,
Dimitrios Giakoumis,
Konstantinos Votis,
Anastasios Alexiadis,
Andreas Triantafyllidis,
Sofia Segkouli,
Dimitrios Tzovaras,
Τhrasyvoulos Tsiatsos,
Sotirios Papagianopoulos,
Magda Tsolaki
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of alzheimer's disease
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.677
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1875-8908
pISSN - 1387-2877
DOI - 10.3233/jad-200880
Subject(s) - montreal cognitive assessment , dementia , cognition , cognitive impairment , neuropsychology , population , psychology , medicine , test (biology) , audiology , gerontology , physical therapy , clinical psychology , psychiatry , disease , paleontology , environmental health , biology
Background: Literature supports the use of serious games and virtual environments to assess cognitive functions and detect cognitive decline. This promising assessment method, however, has not yet been translated into self-administered screening instruments for pre-clinical dementia. Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the performance of a novel self-administered serious game-based test, namely the Virtual Supermarket Test (VST), in detecting mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in a sample of older adults with subjective memory complaints (SMC), in comparison with two well-established screening instruments, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Methods: Two groups, one of healthy older adults with SMC (N = 48) and one of MCI patients (N = 47) were recruited from day centers for cognitive disorders and administered the VST, the MoCA, the MMSE, and an extended pencil and paper neuropsychological test battery. Results: The VST displayed a correct classification rate (CCR) of 81.91% when differentiating between MCI patients and older adults with SMC, while the MoCA displayed of CCR of 72.04% and the MMSE displayed a CCR of 64.89%. Conclusion: The three instruments assessed in this study displayed significantly different performances in differentiating between healthy older adults with SMC and MCI patients. The VST displayed a good CCR, while the MoCA displayed an average CCR and the MMSE displayed a poor CCR. The VST appears to be a robust tool for detecting MCI in a population of older adults with SMC.