ACSENT Laboratory.
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town.
Neuropsychology. 2019 Jul;33(5):685-700. doi: 10.1037/neu0000539. Epub 2019 Mar 14.
Impaired processing speed (PS) is a feature of cognitive profiles associated with neurological disorders particularly prevalent in low- or middle-income countries (LMICs). However, commonly used PS tests are not validated for use in LMICs. We assessed, using a sample of healthy South African adults, the construct validity of PS tests contained within NeuroScreen (a tablet-based application and test battery designed to be culturally fair), and established preliminary normative data for those tests (Study 1). Moreover, because South Africa has the highest population prevalence of people living with HIV and PS deficits are a core feature of HIV-associated cognitive impairment, we assessed whether NeuroScreen could detect PS impairment in a sample of HIV-infected South African adults (Study 2).
In Study 1 (N = 112 healthy adults) and Study 2 (the Study 1 sample, plus n = 102 HIV-infected adults), we administered Neuroscreen and a standardized paper-and-pencil neuropsychological test battery.
In Study 1, factor analyses indicated that NeuroScreen PS scores loaded onto one factor and converged with scores on paper-and-pencil PS tests. Regression modeling indicated that age significantly predicted NeuroScreen PS performance (i.e., younger participants performed better). In Study 2, HIV-infected participants performed significantly more poorly on NeuroScreen PS tests than their HIV-uninfected counterparts. Moreover, a significantly larger proportion of HIV-infected participants displayed impaired PS when judged against the regression-based norms.
These results suggest that NeuroScreen has cross-cultural utility in assessing adult PS performance, and that it might be useful in tracking trajectories of PS decline within HIV infection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
处理速度（PS）受损是与神经障碍相关的认知特征之一，在中低收入国家（LMICs）尤为普遍。然而，常用的 PS 测试并未经过验证可在 LMICs 使用。我们使用南非健康成年人样本评估了 NeuroScreen（一种基于平板电脑的应用程序和测试组合，旨在具有文化公平性）中包含的 PS 测试的结构有效性，并为这些测试建立了初步的规范数据（研究 1）。此外，由于南非是艾滋病毒感染者人数最多的国家，而 PS 缺陷是艾滋病毒相关认知障碍的核心特征，我们评估了 NeuroScreen 是否可以在南非艾滋病毒感染者成年人样本中检测到 PS 损伤（研究 2）。
在研究 1（N = 112 名健康成年人）和研究 2（研究 1 样本，加上 n = 102 名 HIV 感染者成年人）中，我们使用了 NeuroScreen 和标准化纸笔神经心理学测试组合。
在研究 1 中，因素分析表明，NeuroScreen PS 分数加载到一个因子上，并与纸笔 PS 测试的分数收敛。回归建模表明，年龄显著预测了 NeuroScreen PS 表现（即，年轻参与者表现更好）。在研究 2 中，与未感染 HIV 的参与者相比，HIV 感染者在 NeuroScreen PS 测试中的表现明显较差。此外，与基于回归的规范相比，HIV 感染者中表现出 PS 受损的比例显著更大。
这些结果表明，NeuroScreen 在评估成人 PS 表现方面具有跨文化效用，并且可能有助于跟踪 HIV 感染中 PS 下降的轨迹。（APA，所有权利保留）。
