Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
J Neurooncol. 2019 Mar;142(1):193-201. doi: 10.1007/s11060-018-03084-w. Epub 2019 Jan 3.
Survivors of childhood brain tumors exhibit impairments in academic performance and have lower rates of educational attainment compared to healthy same-aged peers. Prior research has demonstrated the concurrent validity of the Neurological Predictor Scale (NPS), a measure that incorporates tumor-related treatments and complications into one cumulative score, in predicting IQ, adaptive functioning, and core neurocognitive skills. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the NPS predicts academic achievement outcomes over and above the effects of individual treatment factors alone.
Sixty-two adult survivors completed four untimed measures of academic achievement from the Woodcock-Johnson III.
NPS scores significantly predicted performance on all four academic measures: Letter Word ID (R = - 0.454, p < .01), Calculation (R = - 0.494, p < .01), Spelling (R = - 0.428, p < .01) and Passage Comprehension (R = - 0.447, p < .01). 16% of survivors were impaired on the Letter Word ID, 23% on Calculation, 19% on Spelling, and 11% on Passage Comprehension subtests with impairment defined as z ≤ - 1.5. The NPS predicted academic outcomes over and above chemotherapy, surgery, seizure medication, endocrine dysfunction, hydrocephalus, and radiation on all measures.
This study extends prior research by demonstrating that the NPS is significantly associated with academic achievement in survivors on average 15.9 years after diagnosis. The NPS may be especially helpful in clinical research when studies lack the statistical power to investigate how treatments and neurological conditions individually contribute to outcomes.
与同龄健康人群相比，儿童脑肿瘤幸存者在学业成绩方面存在缺陷，受教育程度较低。先前的研究已经证明了神经预测量表（NPS）的同时效度，该量表将肿瘤相关治疗和并发症纳入一个累积分数，以预测智商、适应功能和核心神经认知技能。本研究的目的是确定 NPS 是否可以预测学业成绩，而不仅仅是预测个体治疗因素的影响。
62 名成年幸存者完成了四项来自 Woodcock-Johnson III 的非计时学业成就测试。
NPS 得分显著预测了四项学业测试的成绩：字母词识别（R=-0.454，p<.01）、计算（R=-0.494，p<.01）、拼写（R=-0.428，p<.01）和阅读理解（R=-0.447，p<.01）。16%的幸存者在字母词识别测试中受损，23%在计算测试中受损，19%在拼写测试中受损，11%在阅读理解测试中受损，定义为 z≤-1.5。NPS 在所有测试中均预测了学业成绩，超过了化疗、手术、癫痫药物、内分泌功能障碍、脑积水和放疗的影响。
这项研究通过证明 NPS 与幸存者的学业成绩显著相关，从而扩展了先前的研究，这些幸存者在诊断后平均 15.9 年接受了研究。当研究缺乏足够的统计能力来调查治疗方法和神经状况如何单独影响结果时，NPS 可能在临床研究中特别有用。
